Hope in the Cards
by Pan06
Summary: Slash! Card Captor Sakura crossover. The summer after fourth year, Sirius kidnaps Harry for a summer of fun but things spin out of control when Harry finds a strange book and gains some bizarre guardians. HarryEriol
1. Chapter 1

Harry lay on his bed at the Dursley's staring at the ceiling, the events of the past years churning slowly through his mind. Voldemort was back, resurrected using Harrys own blood. Cedric had been killed, the words, 'kill the spare,' were still ringing in his mind. Wormtail was remained free, another murder to add to his growing list of crimes. And after all this he was still sent back to the Dursleys, his muggle relatives who hated the very air he breathed. All he could do was lie here. He felt so helpless and alone. His godfather Sirius had disappeared after the third task, off doing something important for Dumbledore; and his friends were no help either. Their letters were full of meaningless platitudes. He knew deep in his bones, that Voldemort would stop at nothing to see him dead and he had no chance at stopping him. Luck was what had brought him this far and the sacrifice of his mother not that that was even relevant anymore as Voldemort had his blood. So he lay there, not sleeping but not thinking either just listening to the sounds around him.

It was late. So late it was early. He could hear his Uncle snoring in the room across the hall and Dudley grunting in his sleep in the next room. Outside he heard the occasional car drive past. He might have eventually drifted off to sleep if not for a very unusual sound registering on his consciousness. Feet on the stairs! He leapt up off his bed grabbing his wand.

He could hear Vernon and Dudley still snoring so that ruled them out and Petunia was afraid of the dark, she never got up at night without turning on every light in the house. So an intruder of some kind, Voldemort perhaps? He was supposed to be safe here, guarded by some intangible wards brought on by his mothers love and powered by her blood but Voldemort had that now meaning the wards weren't relevant where he was concerned. Could it be a muggle? Was this just an ordinary home invasion, as if he didn't have enough to deal with. Did he dare use magic?

He heard the feet pause at Dudley's room and again at Vernon and Petunias before moving towards his door. He lifted his wand and aimed it at the door, a curse on his lips, when he heard a familiar voice mutter. "Damn Dursleys. Why are there so many locks on the bloody door? Alohamora."

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed quietly as he jumped on the shadowy figure entering his room.

"What the…?" Sirius yelped and just about jumped out of his skin "Bloody hell Harry." He complained as he caught his godson. "You just about gave me a heart attack!"

Suddenly Harry flinched and looked fearfully at Vernon's door. "We need to be quiet, we really don't want my relatives to wake up." Sirius grinned at him.

"Don't worry, I hit them with a sleeping charm on my way. I'm afraid poor Vernon is going to be late for work in the morning." Harry sniggered at the thought. "But what are you doing still up? I was expecting to have Sleeping Beauty on my hands if you are anything like you were as a kid, which always meant to wake you up." Harry was not a morning person, as everyone in his dorm and Ron and Hermione in particular could attest to whenever they tried to rouse him for Monday morning Potions class.

Harry looked down. "I couldn't sleep." He muttered. "But what are you doing here?"

Sirius smirked. "I'm kidnapping you," he said simply. "Come on and get your things." Harry gaped at Sirius for a second before leaping for his trunk.

"What about Dumbledore?" he asked as he dug under the floor boards for his wand, album and cloak.

"Sod him." Sirius growled as he paced the floor of Harry's room. "I lived better while on the run then at that _place_ and if I have to listen to one more of Molly's rants, I might be driven to homicide for real this time." Harry shot Sirius a worried glance. Sirius wasn't known for his excellent impulse control. He shook his head. "No don't worry about it now. Let's just go."

"I'm ready."

"Where's Hedwig?"

"Out hunting."

"Right." Sirius waved his wand at the trunk and shrunk it. Harry pocketed the now matchbox sized box and followed Sirius outside.

"Follow me; we have to get out of the anti-apparition wards." When Sirius decided they were far enough away he wrapped Harry in his arms. "You ever been apparated before?" he grinned.

"No I…" He didn't get a chance to finish before the world vanished around him. The only thing he could feel was Sirius' arms around him. Before he had a chance to panic though the world reappeared.

"Bloody hell Sirius give a guy a little warning next time!" he groused before looking around. They were standing on the gravel driveway of large castle. Gardens spread out around them illuminated by the light of the waning moon above and the coloured lights lining the drive. Harry took in his surroundings in wonder. "Where are we?" he asked.

"This, Harry is the Potter family Castle. Located somewhere in the centre of Wales. Only those of Potter blood and those invited can find the place, to everyone else this area is just forest land." Harry gasped. Potter Castle? "In the past, the Potters have been targeted by dark wizards so they put a lot of effort and magic into making a safe place for their families," Sirius explained as they made their way up the drive. "The Potter Manor, near Brighton, is the public seat and Godric's Hollow was the dower house."

"Why didn't they hide here?" Harry asked. "My parents? If it's so safe why didn't they hide here?"

Sirius sighed. "Same reason I wasn't the Secret Keeper. It was obvious. No place is impenetrable and we couldn't put the castle under the Fidelis. The wards would have interfered and the bigger the area the more power the spell needs. We just decided to use the Fidelis and go some place smaller. Maybe we made the wrong decision. Maybe you would be dead if we hadn't. We'll never know."

The house was constructed of grey stone with sweeping arches and curving pathways and fairly hummed with magic. The whole place was lit up, light streaming from the window, lighting up the courtyard. The magic was stronger, all around him, welcoming him home. Sirius put his arm around him as tears streamed down his face. "Welcome home Harry."

Harry had only the vaguest recollection of Sirius leading him up a flight of stairs and putting him to bed. Harry slept that night with the knowledge that he was safe, and no longer alone.

* * *

After what had to be the single best night's sleep Harry had ever had, he was rudely awakened by a very large thing landing on him at what seemed to him to be an obscene hour the next morning, but was in fact almost 10.

The room he found himself in was huge. He lay on a large four poster bed with a green coverlet and hangings, there were reading chairs in one corner in front of a fireplace, a bookshelf taking up the whole of another wall and huge bay windows that opened onto a balcony which overlooked some magnificent gardens. The colour scheme ran to forest greens and gold's and the bedposts had engraved leaves winding up to the canopy.

"What… Sirius? Where…" Harry foundered for a bit before the memories of the night before came back to him. Sirius, the lump that had landed on him, chuckled.

"Don't you remember Harry? I kidnapped you. Well, you helped."

"Why? Aren't you going to get into trouble over this?"

Sirius flopped down to lay beside Harry. "Probably but I don't care. Lily and James appointed me your godfather and I'm not going to screw it up like I did the night of the third task."

Harry blinked wondering what Sirius was talking about. His godfather turned his head to look at Harry. "Dumbledore sent me away that night and like an idiot I left. It wasn't until later that I realised how badly I had let you down. You needed me and I left you. I'm not going to make that mistake again. This way we have the whole summer together and I can begin to make up for the life I missed."

Harry smiled at the man. "I'm glad."

"Me too. Now, up and at 'em Harry. Come on we have a very big day today. We have to get to Diagon Alley this morning before the Order realises you're missing." Harry watched as Sirius leaped up from the bed and bounded around the room, grabbing clothes from his trunk and tossing them at Harry.

"Order? What Order? And why are we going to Diagon Alley anyway? Aren't we hiding?" Harry took his clothes and moved to the bathroom. Sirius followed and started rummaging through the medicine cabinet while Harry took a shower.

"The Order is that 'Old Crowd' I was supposed to gather. They're a group of people who are trying to stop Voldemort and don't trust the Ministry to do it. I let Dumbledore use my old house as Headquarters but I hate the place and refuse to stay there any longer. As for Diagon Alley, you and I both need new clothes among other things so we are going in disguise. Wash your hair with this." He thrust a bottle at Harry over the curtain.

"What is this?" he asked as he lathered his hair.

"The twins aren't the only pranksters that can invent things. We came up with that in sixth year. We were trying to get a product that would start to smell after a while, so we would have alibis…"

"I'm going to STINK?!" Harry yelled, and tossed the empty bottle at the back of Sirius' head.

"Ow! Harry! Don't you trust me? We'll be back here before that happens and you can wash it out. But one of the side effects is that is lets you change your hair style easily and it'll last longer than a glamour spell." Harry wrapped a towel around his waist and glared at Sirius as he exited the shower. Sirius grinned at him. "So how do you feel about being a blond?"

After a few false starts, Harry objected strenuously about anything that looked like Malfoy, Harry ended up with shoulder length dark auburn hair with red highlights. Sirius changed his own hair to match and they changed Harrys eyes to blue and covered his scar with a cosmetic charm. Looking in the mirror it was very easy to mistake them for father and son. The same thought must have occurred to Sirius because he grinned.

"Meet Jim and Orion Grey, well-to-do Purebloods from Essex. Now get dressed Harry we have a lot to do and only three hours to do it in."

"Three hours?!" Harry yelped, before diving for his clothes.

"Well," Sirius said as he left Harry to get ready. "Technically it's four hours, but you _really_ don't want this stuff on you when it goes off."

* * *

Once again, Sirius wrapped Harry in his arms and apparated them from the front lawn of the castle to London. He took him to a mall that was teaming with people, mostly kids around Harry's age. The first store they entered was a men's clothing store. Sirius walked up to the counter. "Now Orion what I am about to do is very dangerous and is not to be tried with out _at least_ one other male present. The chance of failure in this is high but desperate times call for desperate measures." He turned to the sales girl, a young girl maybe a few years older than Harry, who was looking at them in amusement and curiosity. Sirius steeled himself. "Orion here needs a whole new wardrobe. Money is no object." The girl, whose name tag said Anne, blinked at them before her grin turned unholy.

"Of course sir, I'd be happy to help."

What followed was a campaign that could only be described as devastating. Anne made him try on what seemed like every piece of clothing in the shop. Sirius then dragged a shell shocked Harry through three other stores before he was satisfied with their purchases. Harry, on the other hand, had no idea what he had gotten and after trying on so many outfits could be forgiven for being surprised at being dragged out of the mall in black jeans, boots, a blue shirt and a black leather biker jacket that matched the one Sirius had gotten. Once out of sight, Sirius shrunk their purchases and apparated to Diagon Alley where he once again left Harry to the tender mercy of Madam Malkin and her assistants.

Harry was exhausted by the time they stopped for lunch at a place called Crystals' Ball, an upscale diner on the other end of the Alley to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Sirius where's Remus?" Harry asked as they waited for their food.

"Moony is currently furious with me over some prank we pulled, my seeming immaturity and kidnapping you with out permission. He is quite certain that I have taken you out of the country, as I have been dropping hints about the Caribbean for a while now." He grinned at Harry's worried expression. "At least that's what he's telling the Order. We've been planning this for a while; the only reason we waited is because Mad Eye is currently out of the country and can't bust us. Moony couldn't come with us right away because he doesn't have a standing invitation to the Castle the way I do." At Harry's look he elaborated. "After fifth year I decided I was never going back to my family's house and James's parents, your grandparents invited me to stay. Moony's been invited as well but his wasn't permanent. He's going to meet up with us tomorrow."

"What do you have planned?"

"Well if you were to ask Moony, he'd say it's never to early to start studying for your OWL's." He laughed as Harrys expression turned into one of horror. "Don't worry Harry I'll protect you. We'll get the old boy up on a broom."

"Remus can fly?" Some how he couldn't quite picture his old professor playing quidditch.

"Oh yeah Harry, me and Moony were the crack beaters for the quidditch team. Your uncle is a mean flyer."

"Uncle?" A disturbing image of Vernon on a broom went through his mind and he shuddered.

Sirius laughed. "Well, that's what he is isn't he? Sometimes I think it's only because the Ministry doesn't like werewolves that I'm your godfather at all." He pouted at the thought.

* * *

After lunch Sirius took Harry down Knockturn Alley. "What are we going here?" Harry asked looking around in apprehension.

"We need to get you a confundo wand." Sirius told him.

"A what?"

"It's a wand that disguises your magical signature so that the ministry can't track it. They're no where near as good as your own wand, but they're good for pranking over the summer. The Ministry has, for obvious reasons, made them illegal but I happen to know where we can get one."

They made their way down the Alley, Harry watching his surroundings in apprehension. Sirius noticed he was pretty jumpy and slung his arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry Harry this place isn't as bad as Molly Weasley made it out to be. It's called Knockturn Alley because a lot of places are only open at night. When you get of age I'll bring you to some of the night clubs here. James and I used to come here all the time 'til he got hitched. Just promise not to tell Moony."

Sirius led him to a small junk shop that looked similar to Burgin and Borg's that Harry had accidentally landed in second year, but much better kept. The shelves were lined with an array of books, idols, potions and crystals of all colours and sizes.

Sirius went up to talk to the owner, a shifty looking man whose eyes kept darting to Harry as if he expected his to make off with half his merchandise while he had his back turned. Harry ignored him, used to stares and continued to browse the shelves. He mostly ignored the crystal balls, smiled at some of the idols, and looked at the titles of the books.

He was wandered up and down the shelves, not looking for anything in particular when he felt something. A touch of magic different from the rest, out of place. He closed his eyes and reached inside himself to a place he had only recently been able to find, his centre, the core of his magic. Drawing it up, he opened his eyes. The book store was no longer the shadowy place it had been. There was a glow about everything in the store as well as the floor, door and shelves themselves. The glow had a different texture on some things as apposed to others and some of the books had a very forbidding look to them. He looked at a crystal ball in front of him and was surprised to find shapes moving inside.

This wasn't what was calling him though and he looked around the store to try and locate where the feeling was coming from. Following the magic, he moved deeper into the shop which had to have been expanded because there was no way this would have all fit in if it was the size it had looked.

The call, the strange touch of magic, got stronger and stronger until he felt like he was upon it. Letting go of his magic he looked around. This part of the store was obviously not frequented, as seen by the thick layers of dust coating everything. It was mostly just books covering the shelves with the occasional stone idol used carelessly as a book end. None of the titles were anything that might attract him and he couldn't see anything that might have caused the strange magic until he stood on his toes to get a better look at the shelf above.

There! That one. A spot of colour amongst the age faded tombs. He reached up and as his hand touched the cover he felt the book react. Startled, he almost dropped it.

The book was covered in red leather with gold edging, a winged lion on the front and a gold lock. Engraved in gold across the top were the words,

**'The Clow'**

He fiddled with the lock for a bit but couldn't get it open. The book felt important some how. As if it belonged to him and he was just now picking it up. He traced his fingers over the name. 'Clow.' The name meant something to him but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

He brought the book up to the counter where Sirius was looking over a group of wands. "Can I get this as well?" he asked.

Sirius looked up and saw what he was carrying. "A book?!"

"Yes _Dad_, a book. I'm so pleased you are able to recognise one."

"That's enough out of you my son. I think you have been hanging out with your uncle too long."

* * *

"Well Harry, we have 20 minutes left in the three hour dead line and one last thing we need to do."

"What's that?" Harry asked as Sirius led him out of Knockturn Alley.

"We are going to get your ear pierced." Sirius said happily indicating the jewellers in front of them.

Harry stopped dead. "I am not getting my ear pierced!"

Sirius grabbed his arm and tried to tug him into the store. "Come on, it'll look great."

"NO!" The tug of war continued until they were interrupted by a voice asking.

"Is this gentleman bothering you?" Harry and Sirius both turned to look at the newcomer. He was a tall boy about 16 with long dark hair and wire rimmed glasses that covered intelligent blue eyes. Eye's that were at this moment watching Harry very closely. Harry blushed. Sirius used the distraction to tug Harry closer to him and shot the boy a glare.

"My _son_ and I were just debating the merits of accessories." The boy nodded wisely, a small smile playing on his lips.

"I apologise, but I could not help but offer assistance to such a beauty in distress."

"Really?" Sirius's eyebrows shot up, looking from the boy in front of him to his furiously blushing godson. "Those are good instincts you have. Well perhaps you could help us settle this then. I have been trying to talk Orion into getting his ear pierced and he is resisting."

Errol ran a finger along the shell of Harry's ear tucking a lock of hair behind it. "An emerald, I think, the stone of purity. No other will do."

"Excuse me?" Harry asked, thoroughly weirded out by this boy.

"Ah forgive me; I have not introduced my self. My name is Eriol Moon, a sixth year currently attending Hogwarts and a member of Slytherin house." He gave Harry a short bow. "Might I be permitted to know your name?"

"Oh! My name is H… Orion. Orion Grey. I don't go to Hogwarts."

"No or I would surely have noticed." Harry heard Sirius snort behind him. "Well I won't keep you any longer. It was a pleasure meeting you, Orion."

Harry continued to watch Eriol walk up the street and was only brought out of his daze by Sirius sniggering. "It looks like someone has an admirer." He grinned at Harry.

Harry snorted. "He wouldn't if he knew who I really was."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Right because being Harry Potter is so terrible. Come on, how about that emerald?"

* * *

My apologies to anyone who was hoping for a new chapter of the Acceptance. This is a story my friend and I were working on for fun and it kind of grew from there.

This will be the first thing she was ever posted on fanfiction so I hope people show their love.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't until later that Harry remembered the book. He was putting away his purchases from earlier having washed the gunk out of his hair, when he came across the book in the bottom of a bag. Pulling it out, Harry examined the cover. The book was obviously old, but well cared for, the gold shining in the light. The lion on the front appeared to be sleeping which struck Harry as strange. Why go to all the trouble of locking the book then having the Guardian asleep?

He traced his finger over the title. The Clow. Again that strange feeling of recognition occurred. He wondered if maybe Hermione had mentioned something about it that he hadn't paid any attention to. It wouldn't have been the first time. He fiddled with the lock and was just about to try his new confundo wand when the lock sprang open in his hand. 'Odd,' he thought but that didn't stop him from opening the cover.

Instead of written pages he found someone had cut a hole in the book about four inches long and two inches wide and nestled securely in the hole were a bunch of cards. They all had the same image on the back, a picture of a circle with a moon and sun in it but as he turned them over he realised they weren't any ordinary pack of playing cards. The first one had the picture of a large white wolf with the words 'The Thunder' underneath. Another had the picture of a large bird with the legend 'The Fly'. Next was 'The Windy', which had the picture of a woman with white long hair and wings wrapped around her.

Without even trying he could feel the magic in these cards. 'The Thunder' fizzed in his hand as if it truly was its namesake, 'The Fly' seemed almost to jump out of his hand and The Windy…

"The Windy." At his murmur, the magic that was lying dormant in the card came alive. The same circle on the back of the cards appeared beneath his feet. A wind appeared that tried to rip the cards from his fingers but he held on, lifting his other arm to cover his eyes to guard against the rush of air and squinting his eyes, he watched as the racing air picked up the cards out of the book, each card turning into a little spark of light before racing off out the window, or through the walls and disappearing.

When the wind finally died down, Harry cautiously lowered his arm and looked around in shock. His purchases from earlier in the day were strewn around the room and even the bed and furniture had been moved. Harry was torn between tidying the mess up and running for Sirius when the book started to glow. The cover flipped closed and a beam of light rose from it and coalesced into the form of a… Teddy?! It was a small winged teddy with a too large head and a tuft of white fur on the end of its tail. Floating in front of Harry, the thing stretched out its arms and gave a huge yawn.

The teddy opened its eye's and glared at Harry. "Hey kid what do you think you're doing? Letting the cards out like that? Don't you know how much trouble they can cause?"

Harry spluttered. "Me?! How was I supposed to know? All I did was read a name on the card!"

"A likely story; I can tell by the state of this room you are not the most responsible person. Oh well there's no help for it, you'll just have to get them all back." It peered at Harrys shocked face, "You seem to be in shock. It's all right; I know this might seem a bit much." Now it sounded conciliatory. "I am Keroberos, Guardian of the Clow Cards. You can call me Kero." He looked at Harry expectantly. "This is the part where you tell me your name."

Just then from somewhere downstairs Sirius called out. "Harry James Potter! What did you do?!"

At the sound of his godfather voice Harry jumped up and raced from the room, ignoring Kero's cry of, "Wait a minute kid, I haven't finished explaining."

Downstairs in the front hall, the chaos was continuing. High winds raged around the entrance way and rain pounded everything in sight. Every now and then lightning would flash. Sirius was hanging on to the balustrade for dear life. "Harry what's going on?!"

"It's 'The Storm' card." Kero said, coming up behind him. "See?"

And Harry did see. Sitting on one of the clouds, watching the destruction and giggling was a small elf-like being, with curly shoulder length hair, which seemed to be wearing some kind of armour.

"Kero, what do I do?" Harry yelled over the sounds of the storm.

"You need to capture it. Seal it back into its card form."

"How?! I can't even get near it without getting fried!"

"Use the Clow key!"

"The what?!"

"This!" Kero tossed a small ball of glowing light at Harry who caught it on reflex. Once in his hand the light coalesced into the form of a small red, copper and white key. The key had a small bird's head on one end with a red beak and rubies for eyes. Shooting from the back of its head were white wings. Still reacting solely on instinct Harry cupped the key in his hands and pushed with his magic. The Clow circle appeared beneath him as he channelled his magic into the key and chanted, "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release!"

At his words magic leaped up from the Clow circle at his feet and spun around the key, lengthening and expanding it. Now instead of a small key he held a wand about three feet in length. The staff of the wand had changed to a dark red colour, the birds' head was larger and the other end had a ruby on the pommel.

"Harry!"

Harry was brought out of his contemplation by Sirius' worried yell. He looked up to see the Storm had noticed the magic of the Clow wand and turned its attention to him.

"Now what?" He yelled at Kero

"Use one of your cards. The only way to return it to its card form is to beat it. Aim for the eye of the storm."

Harry spared a thought to wonder how the hell he knew what he was doing before he pulled out one of his cards and threw it in the air. The card was held there by the power of the circle and spun until he tapped it with the beak of the wand. "Thunder, aim your power directly at the eye of the storm!"

At his commend the card transformed itself into the fierce lightning wolf from the front of the card and charged at the Storm. With a roar it launched itself at the eye of the storm, changing into a singular bolt of lightening on the way. The elf-like being, the Storms' avatar yelped as it tumbled off the cloud it was perched on. Harry leapt forward, splashing through the water on the hall floor and swung his wand shouting, "Return to your power confined; Storm Card!"

Again the circle appeared this time drawing the magic of the Storm towards it and gathered it into the form of a card. When the circle faded the card hung in the air before him. It hovered momentarily before sinking, almost gratefully into Harry's hand. The Thunder, now that its task was complete, bounded over to join him.

"Um, thank you for your help." Harry said at a loss. The animal gave a wolfish grin, pushing its glowing head into Harrys hand for a scratch, before dissolving in to light to become a Clow card again.

"Hey, that was really well done." Kero enthused as he hovered beside Harry. "I can see we're not going to have any problems with you. Well, now that's over with, what have you got to eat in this place?" Kero started to back out of the room.

Sirius let go of the balustrade and pulled out his wand and growled, "Oh no you don't. Accio plushie!"

"Eep!" Kero yelped as the power of the spell dragged him back and into the arms of the thoroughly drenched wizard.

"What's going on here, why is the stuffed animal talking and _what the hell was that storm?!"_

Kero struggled in Sirius' hands. "Let me go, you mangy mutt. You can't treat me this way! I am the great and powerful Guardian of the Cards! Put me down, put me down, put me down, put me down!" Harry giggled at the picture he made, a tiny plushie struggling against Sirius' much larger hands.

Sirius shook Kero, leaving him swirly eyed and dazed. "Explain. Now!" he growled.

Kero shook himself. "Alright, alright. I was actually going to anyway before Hero Boy ran off." Harry glared at the nickname. "It all started a long time ago with a powerful magician named Clow Reed. The cards are the result of a combination of Eastern and Western magics that formed the basis of an entirely new type of wizardry unlike anything else seen at the time. This is the same magic that house elves were fashioned from though without the card form, obviously.

But the cards were powerful and other people tried to steal them and use their power for evil. To protect them after his passing, Clow Reed locked them into the Clow Book and he assigned two magical beings to guard the cards. Myself," he puffed up proudly and struck a pose, though the effect was somewhat ruined by Sirius's hand still holding him. "And Yue; who you'll meet later. We are to watch for anyone who would be capable of becoming the new master of the Clow Cards. And you, my young friend, have been judged worthy."

Harry and Sirius just stood there, both thinking over what they had just heard, when something occurred to Harry and he glared at the 'Guardian.'

"If you were supposed to be guarding the cards, then how was I able to release them?"

Kero squirmed and looked sheepish. "Well…"

"You were asleep!" Harry accused. "That's why you had your eyes closed on the front!"

"You try standing guard over a bunch of cards for a few centuries! They're not exactly great conversationalists!"

Sirius growled. "Oh I get it. You were slacking off and now you need my godson to clean up your mess. Sounds familiar."

"NO!" Kero yelled. He finally managed to wriggle his way out of Sirius's hand and flew up to yell at his face. "Harry was meant to be the Card Captor. That was how he found the book in the first place, and how he knew what to do. You think the power of the Clow would answer to just anyone?"

"So what now?" Harry asked before Sirius could interrupt.

"The Cards are mischievous spirits and they haven't been free for a long time. They'll scatter, before using their powers to create all kinds of chaos. You'll have to capture them as soon as possible, before they unleash their power. Without control they could easily destroy everything that came into contact with them."

"How am I supposed to do that, they're gone!"

"You'll learn to sense them. They are a type of magic different to anything you have encountered before. Not to mention some of their effects are going to be pretty attention grabbing."

"Right," Harry said, a little breathless. "Find a bunch of super powerful cards, that don't want to be found, capture them when they don't want to be caught, do it before they can destroy anything, and try to avoid getting caught by Dumbledore while I'm at it. Great."

"And the Ministry, if those clowns are still around." Kero told them. "You don't want the Ministry to find out you have the cards."

Harry sighed, thinking of the impossible task ahead.

"Harry are you sure you want to so this?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean, does he want to? He doesn't have a choice. Did I not make it clear about the chaos and destruction? Chaos and destruction is bad!"

Sirius grabbed Kero again. "You listen to me you pompous little plushie. If you think I am going to let my godson go out to capture a bunch of powerful and dangerous cards to clean up your mess, then let me make something clear for you. The rest of the world can go to hell for all I care. It is my job to protect Harry and if that means sacrificing the rest of the world, then that's what I'll do." Harry beamed at the protectiveness in Sirius's voice.

"He won't be in danger. I'll be there to protect him." Kero assured him.

"R-R-Right." Sirius drawled, looking at Kero's form.

The little yellow guardian glared. "I don't like your tone."

Sirius turned to his godson. "Harry…"

"Sirius it's alright. I want to do this. I think Kero is right, I was meant to do this."

"Harry?"

"I can feel it Sirius. The cards are mine, this is mine." Harry looked at the wand still cradled in his hands. He lifted it and said, "Dispel." The wand glowed for a second before fading and leaving behind only the original key. "I will capture the cards, before they destroy anything. Just look at what one of them did to our hall."

Now that he looked the place was pretty trashed. Water covered the tiled floor; tables had been knocked over, paintings pulled from the walls. The portraits were all hiding behind their frames to avoid the water that had gotten everywhere. It looked, in short, like a storm had hit.

"That's pretty strange actually," Kero noted. Harry and Sirius turned to look at the guardian, eyebrows raised in identical expressions of scepticism. "I meant that the Storm stuck around. Why would it choose to destroy this place and risk capture when it could have escaped to whip up a bigger storm else where?" He peered at Harry. "Might be it had something to do with you and that scar."

Harry didn't get a chance to ask what Kero meant however because at that moment there was a 'Pop' and Dobby appeared in a puddle of water.

"Harry Potter sir! Dobby is so happy to be seeing yous! Harry Potter sirs Dogfather had asked Dobby to be coming to work for yous and take care of yous houses." He looked around. "Dobby did not think it would be so wet though."

Sirius sniggered, ignoring the Dogfather comment. "That's what happens when Harry Potter is around."

Dobby looked outraged. "Harry Potter sir's Dogfather should not accuse Harry Potter sir of making a mess." He narrowed his eyes at Sirius. "Dobby knows what Harry Potter sir's Dogfather gets up to."

Sirius spluttered and Kero laughed attracting the attention of the excitable house elf. Dobby gasped in wonder. "Keroberos!" he whispered in awe.

Kero turned to Sirius and smirked. "See, I am famous."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Ask him what he thinks of Harry."

Dobby was happy to answer the not-asked question. "Harry Potter sir is the bestest, kindest, most powerful wizard in the whole world. Harry Potter sir saved everyone when he destroyed the most evilest wizard ever. And still he is kind to poor Dobby even when Dobby was working for evil bad masters. Harry Potter sir freed Dobby and Dobby is so honoured to be working for him. Dobby is the luckiest house elf ever." Dobby was bouncing up and down, so excited to be telling someone how wonderful Harry Potter sir was.

Kero, on the other hand, was sceptical. "You defeated a dark wizard? No offence but you're kinda young. How could you defeat anyone?"

Dobby was outraged that anyone would question Harry's capability. "Harry Potter sir was only a baby when he destroyed the bad wizard. Turned his evil death curse against him and lived. Harry Potter sir is a great wizard."

"You survived the Killing Curse?" Kero asked, looking at Harry with new wonder. "You mean you survived being _hit_ by the Killing Curse?"

Harry nodded. "Dumbledore thinks that when my mother… my mother sacrificed herself to save me, her love was enough to save deflect the curse."

Kero shook his head. "I don't know. A mother's love is capable of a great many things but your mother wouldn't be the first to give her life for her child. She must have cast some sort of shield charm that required sacrifice. Or maybe," he smirked. "You're just more special then you thought."

Dobby bounced again nodding eagerly. "Yes, yes, Harry Potter sir is very special. And now he has Keroberos with him, he…"

"Dobby." Harry interrupted, hoping to distract him before he could go off on another rant about how wonderful he was and all the great things he was going to do. "I know this place is pretty wet, but do you think you could tidy up a bit for us."

Sirius nodded. "Then you could see about getting us some dinner."

Kero agreed. "Yes! Food. And pudding! No dinner is complete without pudding."

Dobby nodded, and disappeared with a pop eager to get started.

"You know Harry," Sirius said as he left the room to get cleaned up. "When Moony and I planned this, we were expecting a nice quiet summer, with fun things, like flying and holidays abroad and animagus training, you know. Harmless things. Not capturing a bunch of super powered cards that want to destroy everything."

"I'm sorry Sirius, I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I know Kitten," he huffed in disgust. "This is just what you get when you mess around with books."

* * *

Later that night after the hall had been cleaned up and Dobby had prepared a fabulous dinner Harry and Sirius found themselves in the parlour. Kero was bloated out on the table waxing rhetoric over how good the first meal he had had in what was apparently several centuries was. Harry had no idea how such a small plushie could eat at least as much as he or Sirius had. Where did he put it all?

Harry was seated curled up against Sirius who was sprawled out on the couch. "Sirius did you really mean it when you said I could be an animagus?"

Sirius grinned. "Yep! It might have taken us ages to learn but you have the benefit of our experience. Well," he amended, "my experience and Moony's notes. The hardest part for us was finding our animal. But we already know what you are."

"You do?"

"Yep. It was the cutest thing Harry. When you were about a year old, I used to play with you as Padfoot. I'd give you doggy back rides. Anyway one day me and Prongs were watching you outside and were playing in our forms when you decided you wanted to play too. The next thing we know is this little ball of fluff comes charging in and runs straight into our legs. I thought you were a Puffskein at first because all we could see was fluff. It wasn't until we changed back that we saw you were actually an adorable little black kitten." Harry was enchanted by the story. Sirius laughed. "Apparently you decided that if Dad and Uncle Padfoot could change than you should too. Lily freaked though."

"Why?" Harry asked, upset at the thought of his mother mad at him.

"Your Mum was a bit like Hermione in that regard. If something was imposable then it should damn well stay imposable." He smiled at the memory of Lily's rant, before his smile faded. "And also by this time we had heard that Voldemort was after them. If you were already powerful enough to be an animagi as a baby, there was no way he was going to let that go. Lily swore us to secrecy. We didn't even tell Moony. In fact he still doesn't know. Boy is he in for a shock."

Harry was silent, thinking over what he had been told. "Sirius, why did Voldemort want to kill me?"

Sirius jumped, surprised at the question. "What? Harry, why would you…"

"I know he was there that night to kill me. He told me so in first year. But when I asked Dumbledore, he wouldn't tell me."

Sirius looked uncomfortable. "Harry, I don't agree with a lot of Dumbledore's decisions, especially the ones concerning you, but I am glad he didn't tell you as a first year. And more than a little horrified that you spoke to Voldemort about it but I'll get that story out of you later. You weren't ready then. I do think he should have told you at the end of the Tournament though, now that he's back not knowing can only hurt you. But now? Harry you have all those cards to capture and…"

"Sirius," Harry insisted. "Tell me."

Sirius sighed. "There was a prophesy. It said, if you want to take the obvious interpretation, that you would have the power to destroy the Dark Lord and that you would kill him or he would kill you."

Harry was horrified. "I have to…?"

Sirius hastened to explain. "We don't know that Harry. The prophesy was spoken by Trelawney and you know what an old bat she it. The point was _Voldemort_ believed it. He still does, but that doesn't make it true."

Harry looked at Sirius, eyes wide. "How am I supposed to fight Voldemort?" He whispered. "I'm just a kid."

"No you're not." Kero had gotten up from the table and was now listening to Sirius's story. He looked at Harry seriously. "You are a kid that commands the power of the Clow Cards. I guarantee you, no matter how powerful your Dark Lord is, there's no way he can stand against the combined might of the Cards. Capture them all and they will protect you."

Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry. "I will protect you."

Kero floated over to land on his shoulder. "I'll protect you too." He said proudly.

"Right, I'm sure that makes him feel so much better." Sirius drawled.

"Just what are you implying?"

* * *

Well here's another chapter. No Eriol sorry. He's actually not going to be a large part of this part. He'll make a couple of appearences before they return to Hogwarts, and show up a few times after that, but we weren't going to have him be a majour part of the story until Harry starts changing the cards to his own form.

For the record though Eriol does know who was under the desguise. He is a very powerful and cunning wizard and in the anime he always knew what was going on with Sakura.

We weren't going to have any of the other characters show up at all. This story is more about Harry then the cards.

We hope everyone likes the relationship between Kero and Sirius. We loved the sniping between Kero and Li in the anime so this is our homeage to them.

Our thanks go out to everyone who reviewed. Bec, my co-writer, and I love hearing your thoughts. On that note please tell us what you think about telling Ron and Hermione about the cards. We have already written Hermione into the story at a later date, but should she be told about the cards? For the record they are friends, we don't like Dumbledore and Ron is not a idiot. Your thoughts would be a big help. Cheers.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry woke slowly the next morning, revelling in the feeling of being in a comfortable bed, with no reason to get up. He could hear birds out his open window and the sound of the wind as it went passed.

His wonderful morning was rudely shattered when something landed by his head and pinched his ear. Hard.

"Ahhh!" He yelled looking to see what had attacked him.

"Whazzat? Who? Wha?" Kero spluttered as he too was brought out of sleep, falling of the dresser he had been sprawled on.

Hedwig was sitting on his pillow, shooting him death glares. She fluttered up to the headboard and, shooting him one last glare, pointedly turned her back on him chirping what was, no doubt, very uncomplimentary things under her breath.

"Hedwig, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you behind. Sirius came in the middle of the night and kidnapped me. We're going to stay here for the rest of the summer. You'll like that won't you? No more Dursleys?"

Hedwig turned around and after examining the room and finding it meet with her approval, she nibbled his fingers in apology.

Kero laughed. "That's one fussy owl you got there, Kid." Hedwig whipped her head around to glare at the guardian.

"I wouldn't go insulting her Kero." Harry said as he got up and left for the bathroom. "She is bigger than you."

"You wouldn't do anything to me." He scoffed. "I'm Harry's Guardian." Hedwig glared and Kero began getting increasingly nervous by the owls unblinking stare. "I'm going to protect him from that Moldiewort character." Her eyes narrowed and Kero started backing toward the door. "Heh, heh, nice owl." Hedwig fluttered her wings and he turned tail and flew. "Harry!"

* * *

Harry carried a jumpy Kero, who was shooting looks all over the place as if he expected something to jump out at him, down to breakfast. "What's his problem?" Sirius asked, already seated at the table.

"Hedwig showed up this morning and she was not happy about being left behind. Then Kero here goes and insults her, failing to realize she is a bit bigger than he is. With sharp talons." He grinned.

"Ooh is the big bad guardian afraid of the little white owl?"

"You shut up!" Kero yelled, waving his fist at Sirius. "I wasn't afraid. I just didn't want to hurt her." He folded his arms and sulked. "I could so take her."

Not wanting for the argument to escalate, Harry interrupted. "When is Remus going to arrive?"

"I spoke to him last night, he's going to try and get away sometime this morning."

"You spoke to him?" Harry wasn't aware Sirius had left the Castle after he had gone to bed.

"Yeah we have these two way communication mirrors. All you have to do is say the name of the person holding the other one and you can talk face to face. We came up with them in school. Anyway I thought after breakfast, we could grab our brooms and go flying while we wait."

Harry grinned in pleasure. He was about to race upstairs and grab his broom when Kero interrupted. "You know this would be a good opportunity to use the Fly card you have. You should practice using the cards while you can, to get a feel for them. That way you know you can trust them when you really need to. Besides," Kero grinned. "You ain't never flown 'til you've flown by Fly card."

So Harry waited while Sirius went to grab his broom, listening to Kero tell him all about what a good flyer he was and the flying competitions they used to have and how he would always win, except for the times when he would let someone else win, on account of he didn't want to show off. R-R-Right. Harry rolled his eyes.

Once outside, he pulled the key out from where he had it hanging on a cord around his neck. "Hold on a second Harry," Sirius stopped him. "Maybe you should wait until I'm in the air before you use the card, alright? And don't worry about a thing, Moony and I made sure we had a stocked cupboard full of healing potions for the summer and Dobby is standing by to get Madam Pomfrey if anything happens."

Kero scoffed at the precautions. "No Card under Harry's command would ever let anything happen to him."

Sirius glared at him. "No godson under my care is going to _have_ anything happen to him."

Harry ignored them both, and activated the wand. "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release." Just like yesterday the key expanded in his hand to become the sealing wand.

Harry pulled out the Fly card. Even in this form he could feel it's eagerness. "Alright Fly, lets see what you can do. Fly Card!"

This time as the Clow circle appeared beneath his feet, the power exploding from the card, instead of releasing an avatar, wrapped around the wand and combined with it. The power pushed the wings from small decorative extensions of the wand to large, sturdy wings, several meters long.

Harry swung the wand around and leaped on. Surprisingly it was as comfortable as his regular broom, which he knew had numerous cushioning charms. He did a few loops on the ground to get the feel for it, ignoring Kero's helpful pointers, before heading higher and picking up speed.

Though it's physical form had taken the shape of the wand, he could feel the power of the magnificent bird beneath his hands. The was nothing like being on a broom. Thought he had always had a close connection to his broom, allowing him to pull the aerodynamic stunts that he usually did, this went so far beyond that.

The wand seemed to feel his thoughts and followed them without prompt. His senses were heightened beyond anything he had ever felt. He could feel the air moving around him, knew when to dive and when to climb, how to use the air currents but despite the speeds he was moving at, he didn't feel the slightest bit cold.

This was not directing a floating piece of wood through the air. This was FLYING!

Through the wand he felt an answering joy. The Fly felt his enthusiasm and shared it. He leaned in close and whispered, "Lets go higher, faster."

As if freed from some reins holding it back the Fly shot forward, before making a sharp turn and flew straight up.

The only thing that marred the whole thing was Kero, who was clinging to him for dear life, and screaming his lungs out.

* * *

When Harry finally returned to the ground it was at a steep dive, pulling out of it only a the last moment.

Kero fell to the ground with a grateful wail. "Land! Beautiful, wonderful, solid, not moving land!"

"Come on Kero," Harry said as he dispelled the card and knelt down beside him. "I thought you were a champion flyer."

"Champion, I am." He yelled. "I am not, however, insane! Look at me, I think you scared off all my baby fat."

"Nope," Sirius drawled, coming over on his own broom. "I don't think so."

"Look at me I'm shaking." Kero moaned, ignoring Sirius. "I need pudding. It's the only thing that will calm my nerves." He drifted off to the house, leaving Harry to snigger at his back.

Sirius was amazed over the power and capability of the Fly card. "Harry that was amazing. You were going so fast, there isn't a broom in the world that can match those speeds. And that dive! Unbelievable! You are never ever doing that again!"

"What?!"

"Nope."

"Sirius!"

"Na uh."

They were arguing over allowing Harry to get back in the air when Remus arrived with a crack. "Moony, tell Harry he's not allowed to fly anymore." Sirius said by way of greeting.

"Er…"

"It was fine! I was in no danger. Sirius is being ridiculous."

"Sirius, Harry is an excellent flyer. I'm sure he was in control."

"I was."

"I don't care. It's not flying that is the problem. It's the falling and crashing that are the dangerous parts."

"I didn't crash!"

Remus laughed at the two. They were standing in what looked to him to be a clearing in a dense forest Sirius had his arms folded and was glaring in a way that reminded Remus vividly of Lily whenever she caught James or Sirius doing something immature. Harry's posture on the other hand, streamed James right after some daredevil stunt, his eye's shining with exhilaration and stubbornness. At the sound of his laughter they both turned to look at him.

"Remus!"

"Sorry guys but you're doing such a wonderful impersonation of Lily and James. And here I was thinking that Harry was the responsible one, but Sirius is the one acting like a mother."

Harry and Sirius frowned at each other, not quite sure if they had been insulted or not. Shrugging it off Harry gave Remus a hug. "It's good to see you again Remus."

"It's good to see you too Harry." His eyes narrowed as he looked Harry over. "It that a piercing?"

"Moony!" Sirius interrupted, not wanting to continue that line of questioning. "Why don't we have Harry invite you inside where we can talk?"

Remus shook his head. "Actually I can't stay long." They blinked.

"But that wasn't in the plan." Sirius complained.

"I know but Dumbledore was furious when it was discovered you had taken Harry and Molly was calling you all sorts of names. He summoned the whole Order and had them stop whatever they were doing to join in the search for you. We've been placed into pairs and have to give regular updates. He wanted me to work with Snape," both Sirius and Harry drew back in horror. Remus rolled his eyes. "Fortunately Snape was having none of it and I got Tonks instead."

Sirius sniggered. "I bet she wasn't complaining." He turned to Harry. "Nymphadora Tonks is one of my cousins. She's an auror and offers dire sufferings to anyone who calls her by her first name. And it seems she's has a little crush on our Moony here."

Remus blushed. "Anyway," he glared at Sirius. "I told her I would meet her after lunch. I thought I would sound her out on the prospect of inviting her here."

"I don't know, Remus are you sure that's a good idea? Dumbledore can't get anything out of you but her?"

"Well she is a auror. She does have the mandatory Occulumency training."

"Yeah, but not enough to stand against someone like Dumbledore."

Harry was confused. "Occulumency?"

Remus took a breath and went into professor mode. "Occulumency is the art of organising and protecting your mind against outside intrusion, such as Legilimency. For a normal wizard occulumency involves building walls, or shields around your mind that can keep someone out. I, on the other hand, am a werewolf and while I have no shield as such my inner wolf does not take kindly to invaders. Dumbledore is a master at both Occulumency and Legilimency which is the art of _knowing_ another's mind. Not quite mind reading but close. They are able to call up memory at will, just as if you were doing it."

"That's how he always knows what's going on. And why we were never able to prank him in school." Sirius said mournfully.

Harry frowned. "I'm not sure if I like the idea that he can get into my mind."

Remus smiled at his cub. "That was one of the things we were going to do this summer. You will need to learn Occulumency because Voldemort is a master at it, and he will use any advantage he can get." Harry nodded solemnly. "Now why don't you invite me inside so we can have some lunch, and you can tell me what you did to get Sirius's knickers in a bunch."

Harry grinned over Sirius's protests and said the words Sirius had told him last night. "Remus Lupin, you are always welcome at the home of the Most Ancient House of Potter."

Remus had a nostalgic smile on his face as he watched the castle appear in front of him. Then his expression turned odd. "You know," he said. "I know it's been a long time since I've been here and all, but something tells me that's new."

Harry turned to see what Moony was talking about. There, dead centre in the middle of his front lawn was a dark rain cloud, currently watering several large leafy trees. Trees that was growing at a rather alarming rate.

"It's a Clow Card!" Kero yelled, racing toward them from the house. "Or two actually. Looks like the Rain and the Wood."

"What the hell?" Remus spluttered, staring at Kero.

"Not now!" Kero told him. "Harry you need to get Rain first. The only way to capture the Wood is to get to the centre root and you can't do that while Rain is feeding it power."

Harry nodded and pulled out the Clow key again. "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release!" Remus watched in fascination, his sharp eyes taking in every detail of the circle that appeared and the wand in Harry's hand.

The Rain, like Storm, was a small elf-like being dressed in a jesters outfit with a blue tear drop on it's forehead. It was currently lying on its cloud, kicking it's feet as it watched the tree grow to enormous proportions.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled. "Try to get it the same way you caught the Storm!"

"Right!" Harry pulled out the Thunder card and channelled his magic. "Thunder, unleash your power on the Rain Card."

The Thunder streaked toward the Rain's avatar, leaving a booming sound in it's wake, picking up power and speed as it went. Rain didn't even seem to notice it coming. Thunder crashed into Rain but seemed have no visible effect at all as it travelled directly through both the avatar and the cloud, leaving a confused wolf to come to a stop on the other side.

"Harry! Thunder has no effect on water Cards! All you've done is draw it's attention, and it doesn't like people messing with it's fun."

Indeed, it seemed the Rain had noticed Harry and was scowling at him.

"Damn it! Thunder, return!" Harry pocketed the returned card. "Then what do I do, Kero? I don't have a card that can beat it."

Kero's reply was drowned out at the Rain directed it's cloud to leave the tree and hover over Harry and unleased a torrential downpour. Harry struggled under the relentless pounding on his shoulders. Even the Impervious charm on his glasses couldn't stand up to the onslaught.

Sirius and Remus pulled out their wands and were about to help when Kero stopped them. "No, don't interfere. Harry can do this and he must. He has to earn the respect of the cards."

"So we're just supposed to leave him there?!" Sirius yelled.

"He can do this." Kero insisted. "Trust him."

'_Damn it.'_ Harry thought._ 'If I cant use a card to beat this then I'll just have to use my own magic. Am I a wizard or not?'_ "Incendo!" He yelled directing the Clow wand at the Rain. There was no circle this time as fire lashed out of his wand, and evaporated the water, causing Rain to wail at it's loss. Harry wasted no time and swung the wand around yelling, "Return to your power confined. Rain Card!" The Rain sulked at Harry before sighing and let the magic of the circle draw it back to its card form.

"You did it Harry!" Sirius congratulated him.

"Lets not celebrate too soon." Kero warned. "We still have the Wood card capture."

Harry looked at the ring of tree's. They had stopped growing now that Rain had been captured but they were still very large.

"So all I have to do it get to the root?" He asked.

"You have to get to the centre root. The other trees are just extensions of that one root in the middle. If you can get there you can seal it."

"Right." Harry moved toward the tree.

He only barely had time to jump out of the way at Sirius, Remus's and Kero's warning, before a branch crashed into the ground where he had been standing.

"Shit, it's like the Whomping Willow!" Remus yelled.

Harry had to jump again as another branch swung in his direction.

"Harry run!" Sirius shouted. So he ran, narrowly missing two more branches before making it out of their reach.

Getting an idea he pulled out a card. "Windy! Use your winds to tie up Woods branches so it can't move!" The lovely yellow-coloured woman from the front of the card, shot out and flew towards the Wood. It twined itself around the branches using it's long hair as chains before clinching tight to prevent any movement.

Not wanting to tempt his luck, with it's movement halted, Harry raced toward it and was able to jump through the trunks and get to the centre of the trees. But it seem the Wood was fighting the Windy and was shaking it's branched trying to knock Windy off.

He was almost at the centre when a branch swing out of the ground and knocked him away. It was only due to quick spell from Sirius and Remus that he managed to avoid broken bones.

"We need ideas!" Kero shouted.

"I have an idea," Harry said, watching the tree in determination as he cancelled the Windy.

"If it involves shoving the plushie down the toilet, I'm all for it." Sirius offered.

"I meant constructive ideas," Kero clarified, shooting Sirius a filthy look. "And I am not a plushie!"

Harry pulled out another card.

Harry summoned Fly. With it's speed and agility he was able to dodge the branches as they swing at him. The Fly's wings tightened about the wand making him small enough to shoot through the trunks. When he got to the centre of the trees he leapt off the wand and before he even hit the ground, he cancelled Fly and summoned the Clow circle.

"Return to your power confined. Wood Card!"

He hung in the air as the circle drew the power of the Wood card toward it. Harry saw the Woods avatar, a green leafy-haired nymph, smile at him before being sucked back into card form. With the Woods power confined again Harry landed on his front lawn, once again back to it's previous pristine condition, with no evidence of the battle that had taken place.

"Harry!" Sirius was beside himself. "Are you nuts? I told you NO MORE FLYING!"

"Harry," Remus said pleasantly. "Do you think you could tell me why a rain cloud and a tree just tried to attack you and why you have a floating talking teddy?"

"Enough with the teddy cracks," Kero growled. "I get enough of that from him. I am a powerful and respected guardian."

Sirius snorted. "Respected by House Elves maybe."

Harry hastened to explain. "It started yesterday. I found a book in a junk shop while we were shopping and the magic seemed to call me, so I asked Sirius to buy it for me. When I got it home I found it was full of these cards." He showed him the cards he had. Thunder, Storm, Wood, Rain, Windy and Fly. "Only I accidentally let them out and now Kero says I have to capture them again or there'll be mass chaos and destruction."

Remus nodded solemnly, following the explanation. Harry was pleased he seemed to be taking this so well, when Remus's hand shot out, grabbed Sirius's shirt and dragged him close. "One day." He growled his voice low, deep and far more scary then Harry would have imagined coming from his mild mannered professor. From the look on his face, it seemed Sirius was intimidated too. "All you had to do was look after him for one measly day. _How could you screw this up_?"

Kero floated over Remus's shoulder, crossed his arms and tutted sadly. "So hard to find good help these days."

Remus's head shot around, and he bared his teeth and _snarled_.

Kero froze. "Um… I'm gonna go see what Dobby has for lunch." He shot toward the house.

Sirius spluttered. "Me? What…? It wasn't… I didn't…"

"It wasn't his fault Remus. I was meant to find the cards. It would have happened anyway. This way at least I don't have Dumbledore looking over my shoulder."

"Harry…" Remus said.

"I can feel it Remus. I've always been meant for this. Just like I'm meant to fight Voldemort. It's got nothing to do with what everyone else thinks I should do. The cards were meant to be mine."

Remus looked at his cub staring so earnestly at him. He just didn't want to admit how much the boy had grown. To be so sure of his destiny at such a young age.

"Alright Harry." He said reluctantly. "But for once in his life Sirius is right. If you pull any more stunts like that one with the tree you are grounded, young man."

Harry smiled, pleased to have people who actually cared about him.

"Come on," he said. "We'd better get inside before Kero eats everything."

"He's a little teddy how much can he eat?"

"A lot." Harry and Sirius answered in unison.

* * *

So what does everyone think?

We're still undecided about what to do with Ron and Hermione, not that it will be written for a while yet so please tell us what you think.

For those who noticed I know the incantation for Harry's Sealling wand is wrong but I like this one better, so thats how it's going to be.

Please review.


	4. Chapter 4

The room was dark. The centre was lit with floating candles casting long shadows around the wall. The Watcher stood behind the throne observing a group of masked figures shift nervously. The scent of fear permeated the room, and left the Watcher chilled to the bone and shaking.

Lord Voldemort was angry.

_All through life,__  
__The stars shine bright;_

"My friends, I am disappointed." The figure on the throne had only a passing resemblance to a human and every word cut into the Watcher like knives as the fear grew stronger. "It has been three weeks, and yet you have made no progress. I have been away too long. You have grown weak."

One of the robed and hooded figures rushed forward and knelt before the throne. "Master forgive us, we were unprepared. We…"

"Crucio!" The red curse shot through the air and when it hit its target the Watcher screamed with him, feeling the pain every bit as much as the victim.

_The moon and sun combined__  
__Light the path to hope._

"Are you telling me that you, the elite of our society could not find a way? Crucio!"

_As you sleep__  
__Dream of laughter, __  
__When you wake, a smile._

"There was a time when the Death Eaters where feared through out the world. Now you are reduced to petty violence and have lost the skills you once prized. Well you will learn again or you are of no use to me! Crucio! Crucio! Crucio!"

The Watcher writhed, feeling each and every curse. The world shrunk until all he knew was pain.

_Sleep now, little one__  
__And sail away on the moons light_

Thousands of miles away Harry Potter woke up in bed drenched in sweat, gritting his teeth against the screams. He lay on the bed shivering, despite the summer warmth. He listened, the song calming his heart, soothing his fears.

_Sail the seas to Avalon__  
__Go you, rest well my dear._

As he drifted back off to sleep, it occurred to him to wonder idly where the song was coming from. '_It doesn't matter_,' he thought as he let sleep claim him.

* * *

"Go deep inside yourself," Kero intoned. "Follow the pathways to find your centre. Look…"

"Kero," Harry cracked at eye at him from where he sat cross-legged on his bed. "I know how to find my magic. That's how I found you."

Kero huffed. "Fine. I want you to take your magic and draw it up so that it's sitting beneath your skin. Don't push at it, you're likely to explode that way. Just bring it up so that it's resting just there."

Kero had begun teaching him how to sense the Clow cards, and because of the vast areas they had scattered to, it would require a lot more power than he was used to handling.

It wasn't like anything he had done before. His magic wasn't directly in his grasp, but he had to control it or it would burst out of his skin. He had gotten the hang of finding cards in close proximity. Kero had him summon Thunder, and sent it roaming the house and grounds. Harry had been able to sense the direction it was in but hadn't been able to see it's location. Kero was instructing him on sensing cards at distance.

"With your magic under your skin you need to look through it, all the way out. Search the house."

It was more difficult then Harry expected. He couldn't keep his magic focused and stable under his skin and look out at the same time. It kept fluctuating, slipping out through his skin and falling back to his core.

"It's your magic." Kero said. "It will follow your direction. You don't need a wand to control it this way."

Harry nodded and tried again. He tried directing his magic as it left his core. It was slower but the magic settled underneath his skin without further prompting. This time it stayed where it was put, with much less concentration on his part.

"Now don't try to leave your body, use the magic surrounding you as a looking glass. Seek out the magic of the Clow."

Harry took a deep breath. Watching the world through his magic was different to anything he had done before. When he had been looking for the Clow book he had summoned his magic to his eyes, changing the way he looked at the world, letting him see magic. This was different. Magic had no concept of time and space only power and reach. He could sense the wards surrounding the castle, old and proud in a way he hadn't known magic could be. He found Thunder, running though the forest surrounding them, the ground absorbing it's power and spreading it out through itself.

So many things were distracting him, his focus shifted from one thing to the next before he really had a chance to study them. That room, those charms, Sirius, that amulet, Kero, the wards, that bird… Wait the bird?

FIRE.

Harry lost the magic surrounding him as he was jolted out of his trance.

"Wha…" Kero started.

"Sirius!" Harry rushed from the room. "Sirius!"

Sirius stuck his head out from a room down the hall. "Harry? What is it?"

"It's…"

He didn't get to finish as at that moment, the air in front of them burst in to flame and Fawkes appeared carrying a letter. But it was a Fawkes that didn't seem to be very well at all. Harry had seen this before.

"He's close to a burning day."

"Why would Dumbledore risk sending him out in this condition?" Sirius asked as he gingerly took the letter from the rather bedraggled looking creature. Fawkes gave a very pathetic sounding cheep and landed on Harry's shoulder.

"I didn't think he was that desperate to get us back." Harry watched the bird warily. He moved back to his own room and allowed Fawkes to hop on to Hedwig's perch. His owl gave a disgruntled noise, but glided over to land on the headboard to give the sick phoenix some room.

"Is that a phoenix?" Kero asked in awe. "You must be something else for a phoenix to trust you while it burns. It's a great…" He trailed off as he studied the firebird. "Harry this phoenix has enchantments on it." He frowned. "Pretty powerful one's too. I can't tell what they are because they are being burned off by the heat of the burn. Speaking of which, I'd take a few steeps back there, Harry, this is going to be…"

Kero never of to finish because at that moment Fawkes seemed to explode. The heat that came of the bird was enormous. Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry to protect him but the heat was everywhere. The only thing Harry could think of to compare it to was the dragon fire from the tournament, but even that seemed to pale in comparison.

When the blaze finally began dieing down Harry looked up. He spotted Kero's tail sticking out from under the bed and smirked. His big brave guardian. He turned to look at Fawkes.

As had happened in second year there was a pile of ash that the baby phoenix was struggling its way out off. Unlike then however this wasn't just the remains of it's old body. The perch, which had been wooden, had been reduced to a fine powder as well as the curtains and half the desk it had been next to. Thankfully nothing other than the phoenix had caught fire.

"That was a little more dramatic then in my second year." Harry observed.

"You've seen a phoenix burn before?" Kero asked from his position under Harry's bed.

"Yeah, in my second year. I was in the Headmaster's office and Fawkes was looking pretty sick and then he burned. I was terrified Dumbledore would think I had killed him. But that wasn't anything like what just happened."

"The burn was a little more powerful then usual to burn off the enchantments but not much more. Are you sure it was a real phoenix you saw?"

"Yes it was this phoenix."

Sirius frowned as he watched the baby setting in the ashes. "What about those enchantments you saw? Are they gone?"

"Yep." Kero looked it over. "The heat of the burn is a purifying one. The new life beginning with a clean slate. You think the reason it didn't burn properly before was because of the spells?"

Sirius looked thoughtful. "We always wondered what Dumbledore had done to earn the loyalty of a phoenix. I mean he's strong but he's not Merlin. He defeated Grindewald but others have defeated Dark wizards in the past."

The three of them looked pensive, watching the tiny bird happily splashing the ashes around with it's wings. Harry crouched down and reached for the phoenix to dust off the ashes on it's head. His hand didn't get within half a metre of it before something else shot up from the ashes. A female with shoulder length blond hair, a bare torso, very long elf-like ears, and a crown of fire around its head. It also has large orange-feathered wings which were currently curved around the baby phoenix, sheltering it from harm.

"It's the Firey!" Kero yelled. "You have to capture it Harry. Firey is one of the elemental cards under my domain and it is a large part of where my power comes from. I won't be able to get back to my full form but I will be able to fight."

Harry didn't know what to do. He couldn't attack Firey while it was protecting Fawkes and he doubted it was going to just let him seal it.

"But what am I supposed to do? I don't want to risk hurting Fawkes."

"Sirius, try getting the phoenix out of the way first."

"Right." Sirius pulled his wand and tried a summon spell to get Fawkes away from the card. The spell never got near the bird.

The Firey screamed in fury, burning the spell up in mid air before shooting toward Sirius in a pillar of white hot flame.

"Hey it worked." Kero said brightly.

"Kero, you little shit!" Sirius screamed and he tore away from the Firey avatar.

Harry pulled out the sealing wand. "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release!" He yanked out a card. "Windy, bind the Firey with your power!"

The pale yellow women swept forward and wrapped the Firey with it's hair and wings but it did little more then slow the avatar down. The blazing avatar burst from it's confinement.

"It's no good. They are both elemental cards. The elementals, Windy, Watery, Earthy and Firey are the most powerful in the deck and they are each as strong as the other. You need to think of something else." Kero told him.

Harry nodded. Running over his cards in his head he had an idea. "Rain, pour as much water on the Firey as you can!"

The Rain avatar shot him a panicked look before directing it's rain over the Firey. The deluge it dropped on the Firey was at least a powerful as the one it had dumped on Harry that morning but, while it did slow the card a bit, Firey was able to burn the water off in a burst of steam.

"It's not strong enough!" Kero shouted.

"Sirius, shoot it with an aquosus spell!"

"I'm a little busy right now Harry!" Sirius shouted as the burning card chased him around the room. Never-the-less he pulled out his wand and shot a stream of water in it's general direction.

"Storm, give your power to the Rain card and drench the Firey!" This had a slightly greater effect and managed to slow the card down further. Harry added the final touch. He aimed the sealing wand at the cards and poured as much power as he could into the spell.

"Glacio!"

The rain pelting the Firey turned to ice and pounded into the Firey to a much greater effect. The card seemed to realise it was being defeated because it split off from it's pursuit of Sirius and tried to return to the tiny phoenix still snug in it's pile of ashes. But it was no use and soon the Card was encased in a prison of ice.

"Return to your power confined! Firey Card!" Unlike the other cards he had captured, which had accepted capture, Firey gave an anguished wail as the of the ropes of power extending from the Clow circle drew it's power back to card form.

Sirius collapsed in relief. As the card solidified and floated into Harrys hand, Kero began to glow.

"Kero?" Harry asked.

"Yes!" Kero yelled, spinning around the room. "Who's the bad ass Guardian now, huh?" He started posing in front of Harry. "What do ya think, eh? Not quite up to full Keroberos form but still, pretty damn hot, yeah?"

Sirius growled and launched himself at the pretentious guardian. "Damn it, you stupid plush toy! I thought that thing was going to barbeque me!" Kero squeaked. The dog animagus grabbed the little guardian, swung him by the tail and launched him out the window. Harry tried to hold down his sniggers as Kero's wail ended abruptly followed by a crash and a string of curses, none of which were flattering to Sirius.

Sirius looked pretty pleased with himself as he shut the windows and turned to survey the damage to Harry's room. Thankfully there wasn't anything burnt as the Firey card had been too intent at getting Sirius but there was ice everywhere.

Harry looked down at the card in his hand. The image seemed to glare at him. He raised his wand.

"What are you doing?" Sirius yelped, backing away. "You're not going to let that thing back out are you?"

"Firey, I summon you to protect Fawkes. Guard him from those who mean him harm."

It was a much more docile avatar that emerged from the card. It studied Harry for a few seconds, and bowed. With a small smile the Firey let out burst of heat, and melted all the ice leaving the room in almost the condition it had been in when Harry had been scrying with Kero, minus the burned out perch and desk. The Firey moved over to the pile of ashes and Fawkes settled himself down next to the avatar and slept.

* * *

Docile or not the Firey still wouldn't let anyone near the phoenix so Harry and Sirius left the room. Sirius pulled out the letter Fawkes had delivered.

"It looks like there's one for you and one for me." He asked. "Want to hear the old man has to say?"

"Not really." Harry grumbled. "He's just going to make me go back to the Dursleys again."

Sirius put his arm around Harry. "Don't worry. I won't let him take you." They settled into the living room and Sirius opened Harry's letter first.

_Harry,_

_I am very disappointed you left the Dursleys. Your presence there during the summer was necessary for a reason. The protection afforded to both you and your family may prove to be essential during the next year. By abandoning Privet Drive you are depriving the Dursleys of what may be their only protection in the coming conflict._

_I know you want to spend time with your godfather but you must understand that Sirius is still recovering from the effects of his extended stay in Azkaban. I understand that as a young man, this may seem to be a grand adventure to you but there are risks that you are not aware of. With the return of Voldemort you are in ever growing danger. And not just yourself but Sirius as well. If he were to be found in your presence by the Aurors then the worst would be assumed and there would be nothing I could do to stop him receiving the Kiss and you will lose him forever._

_You can not allow your youthful sense of adventure to place you or your godfather in any more danger. You will not always be as lucky in the future as you have been in the past. _

_I insist you return to Privet Drive and wait for my arrival. Sirius knows where he may find shelter and hopefully you may see him later in the summer._

_This is of the utmost importance Harry._

_I will speak with you there._

_Dumbledore._

Sirius opened the second letter as Harry sat thinking over the first. "This one says pretty much the same thing as yours. 'You're being irresponsible', 'endangering Harry', 'bring him back' blah blah blah. No actual concern for me I notice." He looked up to see Harry's worried face. "Harry we are not being irresponsible. They can't find us here. No one can."

Harry nodded. "I know, but…"

"Even if he could, which he can't, we could head to the Black Keep."

"The Black Keep?"

"Yeah, it's a bit like this place. A private retreat for the Black family, though in their case it was to get away from the light wizards that were after them. Even if Dumbledore could find the place, which would be a mission by itself, cause he's never been there, he'd never get through those wards."

"Why didn't we hide there then?"

"Cause I've never been there for one. And I didn't want you to have to worry the whole summer about every little thing you touch. The Blacks weren't exactly a friendly family. This place is your home. There's nothing here that would harm you."

Sirius left the couch where he was sitting to move beside Harry. "You are safer here then you are at the Dursleys and there's no reason for Voldemort to even know you're missing. As for me, the Aurors already had orders to Kiss on sight. If Dumbledore was going to do anything about that he would have already."

He leaned into his godfather. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

Sirius gave him a squeeze. "Besides," he said, watching Kero's furious hammering on the siting room window, over Harry's shoulder. "You have all those Cards to capture and I doubt the Dursleys would be all that understanding."

* * *

That night Harry's dreams were filled with rats. They swarmed over everything, forming a moving wriggling blanket that covered every thing in sight. The Burrow and Hogwarts teamed with the creatures. Only barren wasteland was left of what had been old and proud structures. Cold laughter reverberated around the frigid air and a voice echoed over the masses. "Kill the spare. Kill the spare. Kill the spare."

_All through life,__  
__The stars shine bright;__  
__The moon and sun combined__  
__Light the path to hope._

Harry shot up in bed panting, sweat cooling on his heated skin as he shuddered.

_As you sleep__  
__Dream of laughter, __  
__When you wake, a smile._

"In the morning," he said as the song calmed him and he drifted off back to sleep. "I'll find out where the song comes from in the morning.

_Sleep now, little one__  
__And sail away on the moons light__  
__Sail the seas to Avalon__  
__Go you, rest well my dear._

* * *

He might have remembered the next morning had he not been so rudely awakened. Never a morning person Harry was very much enjoying drifting on the edge of slumber, fragments of half remembered dreams drifting through his head. It was as close to perfection as Harry could imagine. Until…

"Ahhhh!!!" He screamed and leaped out of bed drenched to the skin with freezing cold water. He looked up to see the tail end of Sirius as he ran out the door.

"Sirius!" The Firey card, still curled up with baby Fawkes, huffed in displeasure at the water so close to it's charge. It released a burst of heat drying Harry. "Thank you." He told it. "If Sirius wants a prank war, I'll give it to him. Power of Darkness, power of Light. Surrender the wand the force ignite. Release!"

* * *

"But Harry I didn't do anything," Sirius insisted, giving up on his franticly trying to shoo away the small thunder cloud and just sulking under its constant down pour. Every now and then there would be a flash and shoot small bolts of lightning at Sirius causing him to twitch.

"Well there's no one else in the manor so unless you think Dobby did it, who else could it be?"

"Is this going to be a regular occurrence? Being woken up by screams I mean. Cause I need my beauty sleep you know."

"Is that why you sleep so much? Trust me it ain't working. And why couldn't he have done it? He's the great and powerful Guardian. How do we know what cards he has up his sleave?" Sirius asked his godson.

Harry scoffed. "How could he have done it, he's a plushie-"

"Hey! Not a plushie!"

"-besides I saw you leave the room."

"I didn't…"

The argument was interrupted by the arrival of Remus. He took in the storm cloud, Sirius's pout, Harry's frown and Kero's smirk.

"What did Sirius do this time?"

"Remus! Oh fine lets all pick on Sirius," he whined. "Never mind that he's actually innocent."

"For once," Harry, Remus and Kero said in unison.

Sirius pouted at them and the lighting flashed.

* * *

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. We love hearing what people like.

Here's the new chapter. Enjoy.

The poem/lullaby in this chapter was written by Bec co-author for this story.


	5. Chapter 5

After another argument, and Dobby complaining about the mess, Harry dismissed the storm cloud and they sat down at the table for breakfast.

"So Remus, how did yesterday go?" Harry asked over pancakes.

"Yes, Remus, how was my dear cousin Tonks yesterday?" Sirius smirked, only to duck the apple Remus through at him.

"It went well. She isn't a Dumbledore fanatic, thankfully. No daughter of Andy would be. I think the only reason she joined the Order was because of you."

"Good old Andy." Sirius smiled fondly. "She never believed I was an insane psycho killer."

"Well, not a killer anyway. And she passed that belief on to her daughter, along with a tiny amount of hero worship it seems."

"Understandable." Sirius nodded.

"Right. Well I think it would be better if we waited before bringing her here. Let me work on her some more. While she may not worship Dumbledore she does respect him. I'll make sure her occulumency is good enough before I say anything."

"Good idea, no need to take risks. And hey, if your work takes you to a restaurant or an movie theatre, well that's just good luck."

Remus valiantly ignored Sirius teasing. "So what do you deviants plan on doing today? I notice you started the prank war already."

"I didn't…"

"I want to learn to be an animagus." Harry cut off Sirius's protest. "Sirius said you would teach me."

"We will Harry but keep in mind that learning to be an animagus is not easy. Most people never even locate an animal to turn into." Remus caught the look Sirius and Harry passed between each other. "What?"

"We already know what he's going to be." Sirius said. "It was just after his first birthday. He wanted to play with Daddy and Uncle Padfoot, and the next thing we know there's this little black kitten crewing on my tail. Vicious little bugger he was." He grinned proudly. "Gets it from my side of the family."

"Clow Reed was fascinated by the ability to shapeshift." Kero said. "It was an almost unheard of ability back in his time. See, for me, I was designed with two forms. Changing between the two requires a certain amount of power, but little actual effort. Clow said the animagus spell was designed to completely redesign your body and give it another form to change into but that form had to be compatible to both your currant body and your personality. Because the other form is as much you as this one is."

"And I did that as a kid?" Harry asked.

"Actually it was probably easier for you to do it as a kid. You'd have watched your family changing around you and seen nothing wrong with having another form yourself."

"B-But… How? You…" Remus shook his head in disbelief. "Why didn't I know about this?"

"Lily swore us to secrecy. You know how she was. I think personally think she was in denial about the whole thing."

Remus nodded ruefully. "I remember." He took a breath. "Alright since you've already skipped stages one and two, we'll move on to stage three."

* * *

Stage three involved Harry calling up his magic and watching Sirius change from one form to another. He paid attention to how the magic moved and what it did to him. Kero was having fun directing Sirius, often having him stop halfway and change back. Finally Sirius got fed up and pounced.

"Ahhh!!" Kero screamed as Padfoot snatched him out of midair and shook him.

"Padfoot drop him!" Harry scolded. Padfoot whined. "Now."

"Oh gross, dog drool! That's nasty." Kero whinged, moving higher, out of the dog animagus' reach. "Bad dog!"

"If the children are done playing?" Remus asked hands on hips. "Harry why don't you give it a go."

They had moved outside to enjoy the beautiful summer weather and to have enough room to explore his new form. Harry nodded and concentrated. He pulled his magic up and directed it within himself as he had seen Sirius do. '_Cat,'_ he thought,_ 'I want to be a cat.'_

Nothing happened.

Frustrated Harry threw up his hands. "Why isn't it working?"

"It's a matter of familiarity. You have to know what you are becoming. Because Sirius has spent a lot of time as Padfoot he knows the form very well."

"Why spend so much time as an animal?" Kero asked. "Wanted to be an actual hound dog? Or was the only way to get the ladies to notice you?"

"As if I needed any help." Sirius scoffed darkly. "No, it was just the only way to stay sane in Azkaban."

"What were you doing in Azkaban? Attack the Minister or something? I knew that temper of yours…"

"Kero, enough!" Harry snapped. Kero obediently backed off, recognising a sore subject.

"As I was saying," Remus continued. "The more familiar you are with your form the easier this will get."

"Try it again Harry." Sirius encouraged. "This time get a firm picture of your form in your head. Imagine the black fur covering your body, and claws on your fingers. You have pointed ears and a long tail." Harry closed his eyes and pictured the animal Sirius was describing. "You walk on four legs, and move gracefully. You can feel the power in your muscles, sharp teeth in your mouth. Your eye sight is keener, your hearing is sharper, your whiskers…

Sirius halted his description as Harry began to shift. The transformation was slow, a gradual change. Fur erupted along his body and he fell forward as his muscles and bones shifted. It took a few minutes but soon Harry stood on all four paws.

Sirius looked down at his godson. "You know, I think we are going to have to name you Puff." Harry shot him a dirty look but had to admit the name did fit. His fur in this form was just and unruly as his own hair. He took a few experimental steps. Moving was strange, having to move what he thought of as his arms as well as his legs. And he couldn't figure out what to do with his tail.

"Doing good Harry." Sirius encouraged. "When James first changed into a stag he kept tripping over his own legs. It look him ages to work out where everything went."

"As I recall you weren't much better." Remus laughed.

Harry was really starting to like this form. His eye sight was miles better, and he kept getting distracted by all the birds. His hearing was able to pick up sound from a huge distance, and the smells… Amazing.

"Alright Harry, why don't you try changing back now. Just do the same thing you did before only picture you human body."

The change back was slightly quicker but still nothing like Sirius's. "That was so awesome!" He said as soon as he got a human mouth back.

Sirius laughed and picked him up, hugging him tightly. "You were so adorable!"

"I wonder what type of cat you were, though. It looked like a black panther except for the pointed ears."

"I know what he is." Kero said smugly.

"Well, come on don't keep us in suspense." Sirius growled.

"Umbra Feles," he said. "The cats that haunt the Scottish moors. Shadow Cat."

"They're a myth." Remus protested. "There is no documented proof they have ever existed outside peoples imagination."

"Well duh. That's because they are _Shadow_ Cats. They do know how to hide."

"Are they magical?" Sirius asked.

"Yes and no. They are a cross breed between a Panther and a Kneezle. No actual magic of their own. Some sorcerer a couple of hundred years before Clow was after a better familiar. Something big enough to be dangerous and smart enough to be useful. Of course being so smart they didn't want to be pets and got out. Now they avoid all humans."

Sirius nodded. "I think I remember something about that. That's why there are such strict breeding laws."

"Well what ever you are, you're not fully grown." Remus said. "You still had the large paws and lanky awkwardness of a half grown kitten. I'd say when you reach full size you'd probably be just a bit smaller than Padfoot."

"Regular chip off the old block, he is." Sirius grinned ruffling Harry's hair. "How 'bout you change back into Puff and you and me go exploring? The more you get used to your form the easier the change will be."

"You are not calling my animagus form Puff." Harry scowled.

"Come on Harry, it suits."

"Remus!"

"Don't worry Harry. I wont let him call you Puff."

"Thank you."

"How about Blacky? Inky? Darky?"

* * *

Harry and Sirius had a fantastic time running around the woods that surrounded the castle. Harry soon got the hang of using his tail for balance and the race was on. They raced through the trees, Harry's eyes perfect for picking out paths in what would have been impassable terrain had he been human, his thick coat protecting him as he passed through dense scrub.

Sirius let the way for the most part, remembering better days from his youth when he ran with a stag by his side. They stopped at a stream, still chilled from the ice melt from the high lands. Sirius changed back and waited for Harry to do the same, his transformation significantly slower.

"That was awesome!" Harry threw himself on Sirius, laughing. "It was so great to be able to move like that, and the things I could see and hear! Wow!"

Sirius laughed as he swung his godson. "That's what we thought too. Though Wormtail was disappointed with his form, but he got what he deserved. You think running here is fun you should try the Forbidden Forest sometime. We… Actually you know what? You are never to go in to the Forbidden Forest."

"Sirius, you know, Hermione and I went into the Forest with Hagrid in first year. We got detention for being out of bed past curfew when we were smuggling Hagrid's dragon out of the school. We had to try and find the thing that was killing the Unicorns and drinking their blood. Found it too, but fortunately the centaurs chased it off so I was alright."

Sirius blinked. He opened his mouth, blinked a second time, and closed his mouth again, not really sure what to say.

"I had heard about that incident. I understand it was you who banished the Unicorn killer, some months later." A voice came from the shadows in trees behind them.

Sirius grabbed Harry and pushed him behind him. He pulled his wand. "Show yourself."

"I mean no harm." A roan stallion centaur walked out from the shadows, a bow and quiver across his back but hands empty. "My name is Ifor. I am a scout from the local herd. I could not help hearing your story."

"I didn't know there was a centaur herd in the area." Sirius said easing up on Harry.

"We are but a small group, only recently split from the larger herd in Eryi. When we came to this land the human dwelling had stood empty for many years. If our presence here is a problem…"

"It's not a problem." Harry said. "But how did you hear about my first year? It's not exactly common knowledge. Not the truth anyway."

"To kill a Unicorn a monstrous act. When the Aberdeen herd sent word that some… _thing_ was killing Unicorns many wished to call a Hunt. Only the stars foretelling of the battle between you and the evil one held us back. The stars have foretold many things for you, Harry Potter."

"And once again, it's Harry Potter to the rescue." Sirius snarled. "Cleaning up other people's messes."

Ifor kicked his legs in anger. "The Evil One is not a centaur problem!"

"It's not Harry's either!"

Harry grabbed his godfathers arm. "Sirius, leave it alone. It's not their fault Dumbledore hired a teacher who was possessed by Voldemort."

"He WHAT!?"

Needless to say Sirius was not happy with Harry's recitation of the events of his first year. His indignation was only exasperated by the amusement of Ifor, who seemed to think it was a great tale of adventure and intrigue. Harry wisely decided to leave out the incident with the troll, and almost coming off his broom. He didn't even want to get into the events of his second year. Sirius was seething and only the fact that he didn't seem to be angry at him kept Harry talking. He really didn't want to be Dumbledore though, the next time his godfather got a hold of him.

"…the last thing I remember before waking up in the Hospital Wing is someone calling my name."

"Dumbledore is an idiot!" Sirius raged. "How could he not…"

"Hindsight is 20/20, Sirius."

"It doesn't take 20/20 vision to set up better traps, so that any chess playing, decent flyer with a first years knowledge of herbology, a wand and two brain cells to rub together can't get past! What the hell does he think he's playing at? Not to mention getting the very person you're trying to protect the thing from, to help guard it!"

"Sirius maybe we should go find Remus and Kero now. It's almost lunch."

"Don't change the subject. Merlin, Harry with the stone in first year, me in third and the tournament in fourth, I'm afraid to even ask what happened in second year."

"Um… I'm really hungry Sirius we should go. It was nice meeting you Ifor."

Harry didn't give Sirius a chance to protest before he began the change to cat form.

"Fine Harry. If you don't want to tell me, I wont push." He changed to Padfoot. 'I'll just sick Remus on you instead.' If a dog could smirk this one was doing a very good impression.

* * *

The trip back to the Castle was slower and Harry got more of a chance to watch the surroundings. He and Padfoot amused themselves by chasing each other across the fields. They leaped over rocks and streams and darted around the trees. Abruptly Harry broke off his pursuit.

There. A twitch. He dropped, low to the grown. A hare, it's ears turning to located any threat. It hadn't sensed him yet.

Careful. One step. Another. Silent. Closer, almost…

Padfoot noticed he wasn't following and barked a query. The hare froze, and took off! Harry huffed in annoyance and raced after it. Padfoot joined up late in the game, barking with the joy of the hunt. Harry chased the hare through the forest, bounding through bushes, around trees. Closer, almost there! NO! The hare doubled back. Harry skidded to a stop, almost tripping and lunged after it again. He was gaining on it though and every step took him closer. There! He leaped, his front paws outstretched, claws extended to catch the squirming animal. He could almost taste victory!

What?

Where did it go? The animal just disappeared out from under his paws. That's just not right. Harry lifted his nose to the air to try and pick up the animals scent. He could smell where it had been, could taste the fear as it was being hunted. But then nothing, it was as if it had been erased.

Padfoot trotted up to join him. _'Where'd it go, Puff? Don't tell me lost it?' _he woofed.

'_Wha…?'_ Harry looked at the dog animagus is shock. '_We can talk?'_

'_Yeah, this is how I talked Crookshanks into helping two years ago. Now where'd the hare go?'_

'_I don't know. One minute it was here, the next it was gone.'_

'_Don't worry about it, Kitten. It's only your first hunt. Now come on lets get back for lunch.'_ He turned and led the way back to the Castle.

Harry took one last look at where he should have caught his first hare, and made to follow his godfather.

But he couldn't see him.

'_Padfoot_!' He called, his voice somewhere between a meow and a hiss. '_Sirius! Where'd you go?_'

Harry bounded over to where he has last seen him. His scent was there, he could even see some tracks, but then nothing. Now he was beginning to get freaked.

'Sirius!' He yowled, strained his hearing trying to pick up any sort of reply. That's when he noticed something odd. There was no sound. Oh he could hear the wind in the trees and the water moving down stream, but where were the birds? The insects? The animals of the forest? There was no one. Nothing around for miles.

Wait, he could hear something! Hooves! A centaur! Which way? West! He raced in the direction of the only other sign of life he could find, hoping it would still be there when he arrived. He arrived in the clearing and saw Ifor waiting for his arrival. He changed back to human.

"Ifor do you know what's happening? Everything's disappearing."

Ifor looked at him, his expression serious. "Wild magic has been released. With out control it must act on it's nature, causing great disruption." Ifor looked down and when Harry followed his gaze he noticed the centaurs legs were vanishing! The effect was moving up. Slowly more of the centaur's body and torso was disappearing. "To defeat your foe you must first know it for what it is. Feel around you, you must…" He was gone!

'_Know your foe? What did he mean? Wild magic?' _"A Clow Card!" It must be. But which one? "Power of Darkness, power of Light. Surrender the wand the force ignite. Release!" He felt much better with the sealing wand in his hand. "'Feel around you.' Okay." Harry closed his eyes and pulled up his magic. He didn't bother with the long distance scrying as he could feel the card in the area. He opened his eyes and looked around. There was no concentrated magic around but he could see the natural magic of the world. Strange though, bits seemed missing. Gapes and spaces where something and been…

"Erase!" At his word magic swirled and moved. A bank of grey mist appeared. The mist solidified into a cloth which dropped to the ground revealing small imp dressed in a yellow-and-white-patterned court jesters outfit with a long hat with two points that trail almost to the ground. The avatar smiled at Harry and raised it's hands, bowing like a magician after performing a trick. Harry didn't waste any time. He raised his wand.

"Return to your power confined. Erase card!" As soon as card sank into his hand and the Clow circle disappeared, the forest exploded with sound. Compared to the unnatural silence, it was wonderful to hear. In the distance he could hear Padfoot's barking, no doubt wondering where he had gone.

"Well done," Ifor said, once again standing in front of him. "Events are shaping up to prepare you for your destiny and you rise well to the challenge. The true test will come, however, when loyalties are torn between old and new." Harry had no idea what this meant. "I wish you continued good luck, Harry Potter, and I hope we will meet again." He sketched a short bow and disappeared back into the forest.

Harry looked at the card once more before changing and racing to find Padfoot.

* * *

"Where the hell have you two been!" Kero yelled. "Do you have any idea what time it is? Wolf Boy wouldn't let me have lunch until you got back! I'm wasting away here!"

"Considering the amount you ate for breakfast it's a wonder you're not fatter than you are." Sirius commented, once he returned to human form.

"I have a very stressful job, you know. I… Hey did you just call me fat!?"

"Kero." Harry interrupted. "Check it out. I found another card. The Erase." He held it up.

"Wow Harry that's great. The Erase, yeah." Kero sounded less than enthused. "Can we have lunch now?"

"So how exactly is your job stressful?" Sirius asked, as the four of them walked, (or floated,) inside the Castle. "'Cause it seems to me that Harry's doing all the work."

"Hey, I'll have you know my job is very demanding. I have to guide and protect Harry while he captures the cards-"

"Speaking of protection," Sirius interrupted, rounding on Remus. "Remus, did you know what Harry was doing in his first year? Hmm? In our first year, we were still learning the secret passageways. He was out exploring the Forbidden Forest, hunting down Unicorn killers, smuggling dragons, fighting Dark Lords and who knows what else! What the hell kind of school is the barmy old goat running?!"

"Dragon smuggling?" Kero exclaimed. "That's so cool. Clow had a pet dragon. It was-"

"Not now!" Sirius's and Remus's voices echoed around the front hall.

"Harry," Remus said softly. "Did all that really happen?"

"Um… Well… yeah. But Remus…"

"It's okay Harry, we're not mad at you-"

"We're mad at Dumbledore." Sirius muttered

Remus shook his head. "What was he thinking? Harry, Dumbledore's whole job description is to provide a safe learning environment for young wizards and witches. If that was your first year and given what I know from last year he hasn't been doing a very good job."

"None of this was your fault." Sirius sighed. "I almost wish we could pull you out off school altogether-"

"Sirius, no!"

"But," Remus cut off his protest. "That wouldn't solve anything. And we'd be in more trouble than just taking you for the summer."

"We're just going to have to make sure you know how to protect yourself." Sirius said fiercely. "You've done a pretty good job, so far of getting yourself out of situations. We're just going to have to teach you how to avoid them."

"Right," Remus agreed. "We'll just teach you to do the opposite of what we used to do."

* * *

I'm fairly sure Eryi is what the locals call Snowdonia, but this was found by looking through the internet so please correct me if I'm wrong. Aberdeen is suppost to be where Howarts is located. Ifor means bowman in Welsh.

Well here's the new chapters. I'm short on time so please tell us what you think. Something about our story please. We can't improve things unless we know what our readers like. "Wow your story is great." is good but doesn't tell us anything.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry was laughing at some of the suggestions Sirius and Remus were throwing out on how to avoid life and death situations, as he sat down to lunch.

"We could create a permanent bubble charm around him, so no one can get with in three feet of him."

"We could hire bodyguards. Huge muscle bound mountains. They wouldn't dare- Whoa!" CRASH!

Harry jumped up as Sirius' chair collapsed out from under him. "Sirius are you alright?"

"Urg!" he groaned, sprawled out on the remains of the chair. "What happened?"

"The chair broke."

"And you called me fat." Kero snarked.

Sirius reached underneath himself and pulled out one of the chairs legs. The top looked like it had been cut. He glared at it and turned to face Remus.

"You wouldn't know how this happened, would you Moony?"

"Why would I know?"

"Someone had to have cut the chair. Harry and I were out in the forest and the plushie couldn't do it."

"I'll show you plushie." Kero growled. Sirius ignored him.

"Maybe it was a Clow card." Remus suggested.

"What, Clow invented a Prank card, now?"

"No," Kero said thoughtfully. "But many of the cards like playing pranks. Twin, Shadow, Change, a lot of the minor elemental cards like pranks. Harry, you should try to sense and see if you can find anything."

Harry nodded and closed his eyes. He called up his magic his magic and looked around the house. It was very distracting as there was so much magic around, it almost seemed to overwhelm him. He was about to give up when he noticed something strange.

There was magic in Remus's room. This wouldn't have been odd on it's own but his magic was telling him that it was Sirius.

That couldn't be right. Sirius was right here next to him. And there was something off about it. He opened his eyes.

"It's Sirius," he said. "In Remus's room."

"Er. No I'm not." Sirius said.

"I know, but that's what it feels like. It's you but not. Like you're backwards."

"Sounds like Mirror." Kero said. "Mirror can copy people like a reflection and literally become that person. Even magically. It's a tricky one though-"

Sirius interrupted. "Hah! I told you it wasn't me this morning." He crossed his arms and glared. "Next time maybe you'll believe me when I say I didn't do it."

"If this card likes to pull pranks, what is it doing in my room?" Remus asked in apprehension.

"Spiders in your bed maybe?" Harry grinned and raced out of the room to find the card.

"Thank you, Harry, that's real comforting." Remus grumbled as he followed.

* * *

Harry stopped outside Remus's room and gave the inside a glace with his magic. The card was still inside but no longer active. 

He turned to the others who had followed behind him. "You guys stay out here," he said.

"But…" Sirius made to protest.

"Do you want to end up sealed in a card?" He asked. "The Mirror can take the form of anyone, I don't need to get confused about who I'm sealing."

"Good idea Harry." Kero nodded. "Mirror isn't a offensive card anyway, you shouldn't have a problem. While you do that, I'll go get us some lunch."

Sirius grabbed his tail. "I don't think so, slacker. You can wait out here and worry like the rest of us."

"But I'm _hungry_." Kero whined.

"Power of Darkness, power of Light. Surrender the wand the force ignite. Release!" Wand in hand, Harry opened the door and stepped inside.

The room seemed normal enough, for a wizards house anyway and he didn't see the card anywhere.

Harry moved further into the room and shut the door. He could sense the card and knew it could sense him too. He needed to be cautious. He though about reaching out to scry for it but he didn't want to be distracted in case it came at him. He moved about the room hoping that if he got close enough to it he would be able to sense it even while it was in hiding.

He was right. As he got nearer to the mirror on the dresser that odd twist of magic he recognised as Clow, got stronger. Harry stepped up to the dresser and looked at his reflection looking back. Suddenly waves of magic poured off the mirror and the world rippled!

He spun around and come face to face with his own reflection. Mirror! He raised his wand. "Return to your power confined. Mirror Card!" The Clow circle appeared at his feet and magic streamed up to bind the card but it had no effect. The binds went straight through the reflection. His own face smirked back at him and that's when he noticed all the other reflections.

The room was filled with them. All reflections of him. It was like walking through a Fun House, except all these reflections were different. With some it was obvious. There was one Harry in his quidditch gear, another dressed to the nines in dress robes to put Malfoys at the ball last year to shame. In other reflections the difference was more subtle. A smirk, or a glare. A vapid expression or one of dark warning.

One Harry was a girl, another was a muggle, another dressed as a warrior out of legend. His animagus form prowling around and in one or two images he had cat ears and a tail.

There were so many. He spun around the room trying to find the one reflection that was the Mirror card. He was just about to risk scrying when one image caught his eye.

His image was standing by the wall but not leaning against it. It was dress simply much as Harry himself was, in jeans and a shirt, but with a casual robe thrown over it. It's hair was wind blown and wild, but its fringe covered the scar. The reflection smiled at him but didn't seem too interested, looking instead around the room, taking in everything. It held a wand in it's hand and the Clow key around it's neck.

Harry walked up to it. "You," he said. "You are Mirror."

Magic rippled again and the reflections disappeared. Now in front of him, instead of his own image, there was the a beautiful green-haired girl, draped in a long flowing kimono. In her hands she held a mirror. The avatar smiled at him and nodded.

"Return to your power confined. Mirror Card!" This time when the Clow circle appeared the bindings latched on to the avatar and drew it's power back to it card form. The card sank happily into his hand. Grinning at his new acquisition Harry moved over to the door. He was about to pull it open when he hear whispers from the other side.

"Can you hear anything?"

"Kero, the rooms have a one way silencing charm on them. You can't hear anything."

"Maybe you can't but I am a magical Guardian. My hearing is much better any a any old mutts."

"You-"

Harry pulled the door open and saw Sirius grabbing Kero again. "Hey guys, I got it!" He held up the Mirror card in triumph.

"Great work, Harry." Sirius congratulated him.

"Yeah, you're making short work of these cards." Kero said. "Don't get too cocky though, some of the ones still to come are pretty powerful. You'll need to keep up your energy. Get lots of lunch. Can't go missing a meal. It's very important." All this was said as Kero floated out of the room at high speeds, clearly intent on taking his own advise.

* * *

Dobby had out done himself with lunch, he put together a wonderful spread of sandwiches, fruit and pastries. Kero whimpered with joy at the sight and shot toward the table. 

"Protego."

"Ouf!" Kero bounced off the shield, his smushed face only inches away from the delicious food.

"Kero, it is not polite to eat before everyone gets to the table." Sirius said smugly, putting his wand away. "Just wait a few minutes. It won't kill you to show a little decorum."

"I'll show you -"

"Boys!" Remus interrupted. "Not at the table."

Harry giggled at the pout on both their faces. He sat down to lunch and helped himself to the spread as the others did the same.

"This looks great," Sirius commented, as he loaded his plate. "Dobby really is a great cook. The house elf we had when I was a kid couldn't cook for peanuts. I was always surprised he never poisoned us with some of the crap he made."

"It might explain your disposition then," Kero commented, dragging half the table toward him.

Harry just ignored the bickering. It was beginning to get common place when ever Kero and Sirius were in the same room. Or general vicinity. Or awake. He picked up his sandwich and took a bite, "Mmphf!" and promptly spit it back out again.

"What's wrong Harry?" Remus asked as he took a bite of his own lunch. Harry watched at his face screwed up in revulsion.

"What's wrong with the food?" Sirius asked having swallowed his own mouthful, and was taking a large gulp of water to wash the taste from his mouth. They turned to look at Kero, who seemed to have made it through half the food in front of him before he even stopped to taste it. When he did though…

"Bleck!" Kero followed Sirius' example, only he planted his face in the water jug.

"Dobby!" Harry called.

Pop. Dobby appeared, only he wasn't his usual excitable self. He was covered in flour and jam and was almost in tears. "Dobby is sorry, Master Harry Potter sir. Dobby is trying to keep it out of the food but it is being so fast. Dobby is a bad elf! Bad! Bad Dobby!" He began to hit himself over the head.

"Dobby, stop!" Harry grabbed the elf's flailing hands. "Dobby, what was getting into the food?"

"The sweet magic! The pixie! Dobby tried to stop it."

"A Clow card?"

"The Sweet!" Kero exclaimed. "The Sweet, Harry, the Sweet. My favourite card. You have to capture it, Harry. The Sweet. It can turn anything into candy."

"Right like you need any more sugar." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's alright Dobby. I'm not mad. Why don't you show me where the pixie is and I'll get rid of it."

Dobby sniffled. "Dobby will show you."

* * *

Harry followed Dobby down to the kitchen, which was located beneath the castle in a cavernous room that would have fit a dozen chefs easily. There seemed to be food all over, in various stages to preparation. He wondered what Dobby was going to do with it all but remember how much Kero seemed to eat. 

Dobby pointed. "Sweet magic is there!"

He was pointing to the larder. Harry summoned the sealing wand and opened the doors.

A small fairy with afro-like hair resembling cotton candy and a yellow dress with skirt resembling cream puffs shot out.

It darted across the kitchen and Harry chased after it. The avatar waved it's wand and a pan turned into a cake. He tried summoning the little avatar to him but the thing was fast. It darted behind a bag of flour and pushed the whole thing over, Harry had to jump back to avoid getting hit. He growled in frustration. How the hell was he supposed to catch the thing? Windy would be no help, the avatar was too small for Windy to properly catch. The avatar giggled at his frustration but just as it was about to change the chair into a cookie Dobby came up behind it and threw up a dish towel and snagged the little pest right out of the air.

Harry wasted no time and swing the wand up. "Return to your power confined. Sweet card."

Dobby had to quickly jump out of the way as the power of the circle reached up to contain the Sweet, who pouted at having it's fun ruined.

Harry turned to show Kero his new card only to find him sitting on the bench, looking at the mess of the kitchen, tears streaming down his face.

"Kero?" He asked in concern.

"My lunch," Kero whimpered. "It ruined my lunch. I'm so hungry."

Harry just rolled his eyes.

* * *

After Dobby fixed everyone another lunch, and Kero had eaten his fill, (easily twice what Harry had eaten,) Remus cornered the little Guardian and demanded more information. 

"How exactly is Harry supposed to find these cards of yours? The ones so far have just been around the castle."

"They're not _my_ cards." Kero told him. "They were meant for Harry. He'll find them when he needs to."

"And in the mean time, who knows what kind of trouble they're causing."

"Well I was _trying_ to teach him to sense the cards at a distance but he kept getting distracted." Kero insisted.

"We can try again now." Harry offered, still high from having captured three cards that morning. He sat himself down on the floor of the den and summoned his magic. It took him a bit to remember how to scry long distance. The world was so strange when he saw it this way. He could see the whole of England, but everything was out of proportion. He had to force himself not to get distracted by what he was seeing.

Harry concentrated on the magic of the Clow cards. He thought maybe he could sense it at a few places around the country but focused on one spot. The magic was strong but indistinct. He could make out a sense of sharpness to it. Strength and skill. Now he just had to find out where it was.

Making out anything of the real world like this was hard because the physical world didn't seem very important to his magic, and it was much more interesting to look at the enchantments on that painting.

"-_ry_."

He could just make out a vague out line of the physical world but could tell where he was. Looking around was hard and there was nothing in the immediate vicinity that gave him a clue to his location.

"_Harry_."

Maybe it wasn't the place he needed to be looking at. He touched one of the bright spots that he recognised as a person. Oh! So that's where…

"Harry!" Someone was shaking him, calling him. He wanted to tell them to stop, that it was distracting, but he found it surprisingly hard to get his body to move. His eye lids felt so heavy as he forced them open.

He was leaning against Sirius's chest and Kero was floating above him with a serious expression on his face.

"Harry?" Sirius asked, peering down into his face.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"You were almost spell-bound." Kero told him. "I didn't think this would happen. It takes a great deal of power to become lost in your own spell like that. Did you find a card?"

Harry sat up as he remember what he had been looking for. "Oh yeah! I did. Kero, is there, I don't know, a blade card? I got a sense of strength and skill and it seemed really sharp. That sounds weird I know."

"No blade card but there is a Sword Card. Or maybe the Arrow. Did you see where it was?"

"Yeah. It was hiding out in the British Museum."

* * *

I'm so sorry about the short chapter, people. Real life has been kicking my ass lately, so you could have had a short chapter now or waited for a longer one. To make it up to you Eriol will probably make an appearence in the next chapter. 

Wow we had so many constructive reviews for the last chapter. You've been so great. I thought I'd answer some of the questions here rather than individual replies. I hope no one minds.

People has asked about Harry and Sirius being able to talk in their animagus forms. In canon Sirius talks about being able to communicate with Crookshanks and says that he is a really smart cat. Well Harry is part Kneezle and has a human mind as well. It stands to reason that they should be able to communicate. At least I think it does. If not consider it magic.

Someone said the cards were being caught in the same order as the anime. Um, no. The order is random and is mostly based on how I think they should be captured and what cards he'll need where. I'm not following the anime.

Will he have a rival? No he wont because I don't want to write in an OC. Sorry, I'm just lazy. Plus this isn't Card Captors, it is a completely new story.

Another comment was writing his name on the cards. I gave this a lot of thought and decided not to because I didn't like the idea of defacing the cards that way. Yes I know names are important and work as a binding, but lets just go with Harry not needing to.

Please keep up the the constructive reviews. They really do inspire me to write more.


	7. Chapter 7

Harry and Kero wanted to rush off to the museum right then but Sirius wouldn't let them.

"The British Museum is huge. There is no way we are going to cover all of it in a few hours."

"Sirius is right. If we go in the morning we can make a day of it. It is a fascinating place. There..."

"We are going to find the damn card not to sight see." Sirius glared at Remus.

"No reason we can't do both."

So it was mid morning the next day when Harry, Remus and a once again disguised Sirius walked in to the foyer of the British Museum. The place was fairly busy, families and groups of people mingling around, drifting from one exhibit to another. Kero was grumbling bitterly from his place in Harry's back pack.

"Alright Harry, do your thing." Sirius said, watching the crowds carefully.

Harry moved over to the wall, out of the way and closed his eyes. Pulling up his magic he scanned the area. There was a lot of magic around, various artefacts were glowing faintly, the charms long since faded. He looked for any sign of a Clow card. The magic was present, he could feel the residue in various places but could not detect the card itself. He opened his eyes.

"I can't find it." He said. "I can feel where it's been but not where it is."

"Don't worry about it Harry." Kero assured from his back pack. "Some of the cards are very good at hiding themselves. Unless they're active you might not be able to sense them until they try to move."

"Think we should go and come back later?" Sirius asked.

"We're here now." Remus said. "We shouldn't waste the day. A trip to the Museum should never be wasted."

"Yes Professor." Sirius rolled his eyes.

* * *

History didn't seem so mind-numbingly boring with the artefacts themselves right in front of and Remus explaining what everything was. He didn't just explain the muggle histories but the magical ones and how the two worlds had such a huge effect on each other. Even Sirius hadn't realised just how close the two worlds had been. 

"Keep in mind my family was a very dark, pureblood family. They would never admit to having anything to do with muggles."

"It is unfortunate that some people would rather blind themselves to the world around them, then deal with their own inadequacies." A voice from behind them interjected.

"Eriol Moon!" Harry gasped. It was the same boy from Diagon Alley.

"Harry Potter. I hadn't realised you would know my name. I am thankful though as it spares me the necessity of introducing myself."

"Um… Well I-" Harry fumbled as he remembered he had been in disguise before.

Eriol smiled at him. "I certainly will not complain about being brought to your attention. Instead I shall be grateful I made such a lasting impression."

"Mr Moon, I am pleased to see you using your summer productively." Remus said, trying not to smile at Harry's fierce blush.

"Professor Lupin, good morning. It is good to see you again. I was sorry to see you go last year. But I did not realise you and Harry knew each other."

"We do indeed. I was good friends with his father while we were in school together."

Eriol turned to Sirius who didn't know whether to laugh at Eriol flirting with Harry, or be mad that he seemed to flirt with everyone. He settled for moving to hover protectively behind Harry.

"I'm Patrick Torvis, an old friend of Mr Lupin and the Potters."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr Torvis. I hope you'll forgive the presumption but I was wondering if I be permitted to join you on your exploration today? Museums are always to much more fun when you can share the experience, with someone meaningful."

"Of course you can join us, Mr Moon, I quite agree. We'd be delighted." Remus answered with a slightly raised brow.

"Please. Call me Eriol. We are no longer in school."

"And I'm Remus."

"You can call me Torvis."

As they walked around the museum Eriol took every opportunity to touch Harry, whether it was a hand on his back guiding him though a crowd, a touch on the arm, when pointing something out or leaning close when explaining the history on a certain object. He was perfectly polite, engaging both Sirius and Remus in conversation and all Harry could do was go along with the seemingly innocent contact.

"I often come to the museum during the summer to see the new exhibits. I have always found history to be a fascinating subject." Eriol smiled at Harry. "It's a shame that Professor Bins doesn't encourage that same interest in his students.

"Er, yeah. It seems so much more interesting when Remus was explaining it." Harry agreed, blushing as Eriol took his hand.

"I wouldn't want to lose you in this crowd." He explained. "It's busy to day." Indeed it had seemed to have picked up some. People seemed to be mingling everywhere and it made navigating the halls somewhat more difficult. For some reason the crowds seemed to be conspiring to push them in together, forcing them to stay in physical contact just so they wouldn't lose each other. "Professor Binns might once have been a good teacher but sadly the life has quite literally gone out of him and his lessons. Being the ghost of a history teacher might actually make him the most boring ghost in existence."

"I always thought it would be a good idea to use the ghost from the time period they are teaching about. You know, get a real life account of what happened, from someone who was actually there."

"That would be a wonderful idea. That is actually where our historians get a lot of their information. Unfortunately most ghost don't like to travel from their haunt. And there aren't many from more them a few hundred years ago. Would you like to see the exhibit on Alexander the Great? The ghost of Alexander was said to have remain for several hundred years after his death."

* * *

After a few hours they stopped for lunch at the Court Café. 

"The food here is very good." Eriol told them. "I highly recommend the desert menu."

Harry heard Kero whimper from the bottom of his back pack.

"It is a shame we will not get to visit the Musketeer exhibition. I understand one of the museums security guards was attacked last night by an intruder wielding a sword."

Harry, Sirius and Remus tensed. "I hope no one was hurt." Harry said.

"Only someone's pride from the sounds of things. I am afraid that I must leave you now. I have other places to be this afternoon. Harry," he leaned closer and covered Harry's hand with his own. "I had a truly wonderful morning. Thank you for allowing me to intrude on your outing. Professor Lupin, it was lovely to see you again. Mr Torvis, a pleasure. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon."

* * *

"Sounds like someone has an admirer," Remus teased. 

"He was flirting with him at Diagon Alley as well. 'Course Harry was in disguise then. What was it you said about him not wanting you if he knew who you were?" Sirius asked.

"He probably flirts like that with everyone." Harry scoffed.

"Maybe next time you should flirt back."

Harry pointedly ignored his grinning godfather and uncle and asked, "What do you think about what he said? About the Musketeer Exhibition. Think it could be the Sword card?"

"It would be a hell of a coincidence if it wasn't. Why don't we see what we can find out."

* * *

True to Eriols word the Exhibition, located on the lower floor of the Museum, was closed to the public. Even from the door they could see the damage. Signs and posters were strewn around the place and a mannequin dressed as a musketeer was toppled over, it's costume shredded. 

"Harry can you feel anything from here?" Remus asked.

Harry concentrated for a moment but shook his head. "Just it's presence but not where it is. I don't understand why if I'm so close I can't find it."

"The sword card isn't like Mirror." Kero piped up from Harry back pack. Harry pulled the bay around an lifted the flap. Kero struck his head out and surveyed the damage. "The battle cards were made to be cunning. It's what they were designed for. Not all of them do, of course, but they can."

"Just how powerful is this card anyway?" Sirius asked looking at the shredded mannequin with a frown. "This is some pretty extensive damage."

"The knowledge and power of some of the best sword fighters in the world went into its construction, including that of Clow Reed himself. The sword itself it made from pure magic and can cut through anything magical or physical. You get into a sword fight with the Card and you lose. Hands down. No question."

"And you expect Harry to fight that thing? He's never touched a sword before in his life." Sirius growled.

"Actually I have," Harry interjected. "In second year, I killed a snake with a sword."

"Yeah, you any good?" Kero asked.

"Pretty terrible actually. It was just a matter of swing and chop."

"Well no one said you had to fight fair. You're a wizard not a sword fighter."

"That still doesn't help us with finding it." Harry said, still scanning the area.

"We…"

"Excuse me gentlemen, but I'm afraid this Exhibition is closed. I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience." One of the curators came up to them and apologised. Kero ducked back into the bag. "We've had a few brake-ins recently. Vandals, as you can see."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Harry asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, that is a matter for the police to sort out. Please enjoy the rest of your visit." The man made to leave. Remus stopped him and subtly drew his wand.

"I'm sure it wont hurt to tell us." He said, casting a compulsion charm. "We wont tell anyone."

The man blinked and looked confused. "Oh! No I guess it wouldn't hurt. It all started a couple of nights ago, you see. One of our security guards was making his round of the exhibits, just checking to make sure everything was locked up. We have some valuable artefacts on show here. Anyway everything was normal until he got here. Then out of nowhere this figure jumps out at him with a sword and attacks him! Fortunately he wasn't badly injured, but he was pretty shaken up, as you can imagine. We checked the security cameras, but they had mysteriously gone down in this area for that time. We stepped up security around this area but the next night the same thing happened again. The guards didn't get a good look at the guy and the cameras are down. The last three nights it's the same thing. We don't understand. The only choice it to close the exhibit."

"That's terrible." Remus said. "Well thank you for telling us. We'll be on our way now."

"Of course. No problem." The curator said absently. "Enjoy your visit."

"Well I'd say that's definitely the Sword card." Kero said, sticking his head back out after the man had left. "If it keeps to the same pattern it'll probably attack again tonight. We'll have to come back after dark. Sneak into the museum, and catch the card before it attacks another guard."

"Sounds like we'll have to do a little braking and entering." Sirius grinned before rolling his eye's. "Of all the places to brake in to we have to chose a museum. It's almost as bad as a library. At least a library contains useful things."

"Breaking into a library wouldn't do you any good." Kero smirked. "You'd have to know how to read."

Any further comment was cut off as he was forcibly shoved back into the pack.

* * *

Since they had to wait until later to plan their breaking and entering, Remus decided not to waste the rest of their visit. They continued looking around the exhibits and Remus told them of his travels. "During the years between James and Lily's death and coming to work at Hogwarts I spent a lot of time travelling. My parents were both muggleborn so I was able to get a passport and travelling the muggle way meant I was able to avoid the strict anti-werewolf laws. I got to see some of the worlds greatest sights, Wizarding and muggle." 

"What Wizarding sights did you see?" Harry asked, curious, as he had little idea of Wizarding tourism.

"Well I went to the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, the Museum at Alexandria. I visited the temples in Athens and Delphi and the Luna temple. I got to stay in Shangri La for a couple of weeks. The monks there were very interested in my lycanthropy. They don't get too many werewolves up there. I was trying to get a visitors pass to visit Avalon, when Dumbledore asked me to come teach."

"Wow, Moony, I had no idea you where so well travelled." Sirius said, looking at his friend.

"Well," Remus winced. "I was running. Trying to forget. Avoid my past."

"Did it work?" Harry asked.

"No, it never did. So soon as Dumbledore mentioned the possibility of seeing you again I came running."

Harry smiled.

* * *

"Right, everyone knows what to do?" Sirius asked. 

"I can't believe I agreed to this." Remus sighed

"I can't believe you agreed to this either, Moony. But you did and there's no backing out now. We have to go in and get that card."

"Oh, come on." Kero complained. "A little larceny never hurt anyone. And we're in good hands. This is probably right up the jail birds alley."

"Plushie!" Sirius hissed.

"Mutt!"

"Lets just get this over with."

They were standing across the street from the museum. It was nearing midnight, the Museum had long shut down for the night. The only one's in there now would be the night guards. Remus tapped each of them on the head with his wand. Harry had the strange feeling of an egg being cracked on his head and slowly dripping down his back. When Harry looked at his hand he could only see the faintest out line.

"Whoa."

"The disillusionment charm." Remus told him. "Useful for sneaking out of the house without being seen, pulling pranks and of course breaking and entering."

"Dumbledore taught us this spell when we went undercover for the Order." Sirius told Harry as they snuck into the museum, Sirius casting alohamora on the doors. "It's a restricted spell. Apparently the Ministry doesn't think it's a good idea for people to be able to get around invisible."

"Hey," Kero hissed. "Enough with the gossip. You can chatter like old ladies some other time, when we're not all in danger of being arrested."

They all froze as a beam of light swept over them. A guard stepped out of one of the hall ways and shone his light around the lobby. Everyone stayed stock still until the guard moved on into one of the exhibits and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Right no more talking until we get the card."

The trio and the floating plushie made there way to the lower floor, where they had been just a few hours earlier. Harry noticed it seemed much larger without the crowds that had been there earlier. Harry was used to a large, draughty castle but it was still a little intimidating.

When they got to the Musketeer exhibit the number of guards had increased. Sirius had to cast a silencing charm on their feet and a notice-me-not charm in order to get by. The hall had been tidied up some and the mannequin that had been shredded was back up, new uniform in place. Remus used confundo on the guards in the room to get them to leave.

"Harry do you sense anything now?" Sirius asked.

"Wait, summon your wand first." Kero said. "Best not get caught by surprise."

"Right. Power of Darkness, power of Light. Surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release." The powers releasing the wand from its form also dispelled the disillusion on it. It looked very odd floating in mid-air, seemingly on it's own. As soon as Harry had the wand in hand there was movement in the exhibit hall.

"Where is it?" Harry asked.

"I don't-Shit!" Sirius ducked just in time to avoid losing his head as the Musketeer mannequin came to life, swinging it's Sword. Sirius grabbed a sword from one of the other displays and began to parry the blows. "Why do they always come after me!?"

"The cards are very perceptive, you know." Kero said. "Very good judges of character."

"Shove it plushie."

"How did it know he was there?" Remus asked. He aimed his wand at the mannequin, in an effort to help out but could not get a clear shot.

"He's not exactly quiet." Kero said.

"Expeliarmus!" Harry shouted. The Sword flew out of the mannequin's glove(hand?) but it never made it to Harry. The Sword stopped in mid air before turning and shooting back to it's host.

"The sword itself is the card, you won't be able to defeat it in a fight. Try to go after the mannequin."

"Defindo!" he aimed a cutting curse at the dummy. The curse hit it at it's shoulder, tearing through the cloth and plastic that held it together. The arm fell to the floor, the Sword hitting with a clanging sound.

"Return to your power confined. Sword Card!" The Sword fought it's capture, the mannequin attempting to retrieve it's fallen arm, and the Sword along with it but the magic of the Clow circle was too strong. The Sword coalesced back into card form. It shivered in his hand.

"Well that was undignified." Sirius complained as he caught his breath. "Fighting with a dummy."

"The mannequin didn't seem to have a problem with it."

"Sirius, where did you learn to sword fight?" Harry asked, very impressed with his godfathers skills.

"My parents insisted I learn. It's a pureblood thing. Well," he amended." I suppose it's more of a snob thing, but in our world it's usually the same thing."

"Hey! What's going on in there!?" There was a banging on the door. The confundus charm apparently worn off, the noise of the fight had attracted the guards.

"Time to go!" Sirius grabbed Harry and disapparated.

* * *

"Why couldn't we just apparate into the exhibit?" Harry asked when they appeared back in the Potter Castle. 

"Because of the security cameras." Remus said, when he appeared with Kero. "Spells like the Disillusionment spell don't last through apparition. There was no way of telling whether there was a guard in the room at the time." Remus was right the disillusionment spell they had been under was now gone.

"Well that was fun." Sirius grumbled. "Maybe next time we'll find a card that doesn't want to take my head off."

"I'm sorry Sirius. I never meant..." He was interrupted by a large yawn escaped him.

"Time for bed." Remus instructed. "It's been a long day."

"Will you be here tomorrow?" Sirius asked as they made their way to bed.

"I can't. I said I'd meet Tonks so we could look for you guys."

"K. Well enjoy your date." Harry smirked at him before he disappeared into his room, a sniggering Kero ducking out of the way of a hastily thrown hex.

"Speaking of dates what do you think of this Eriol character?" Sirius asked. "What was he like when you taught him?"

"Eriol Moon was a fourth year Slytherin when in my defence classes. He was very polite, very studious. He seemed to get along with everyone."

"I'm sure he got along with everyone. He was flirting with Harry the other day when we went to Diagon Alley in disguise. And did you see him today? He was all over him."

"Well I didn't pay much attention to the gossip but it seemed to me that he was well liked."

"Humph."

"What are you going to be doing tomorrow?"

"I was thinking of taking Harry to Godrics Hollow." Sirius said quietly.

"That's a good idea. We had some good times at that house. Before..."

"Yeah." Sirius nodded, sadly. "Before."

* * *

Author Note: I'm sorry about the delay in this chapter. But I now have a new laptop so I can spend more time writing. Hopefully this will mean I get chapters out faster. 

I hope everyone liked seeing more of Eriol. It will be a while before you see him again. Keep in mind Eriol is a very cunning wizard and has a tremendous amount of patience.

I am at a loss about how to satisfy people about the pace. I am not very good at small talk and though I have got scenes planed that don't have anything to do with the cards, there are fifty two cards to get through. I know the manga had less but a pack of cards has fifty two, so that's what my deck has.

We aren't going to meet Yue until Hogwarts and he won't be an existing character, though Shinsei Tsukiko's idea of Luna as Yue was a very good one. Harry was very angry at the start of OotP mainly because he was being kept in the dark and with people he hated. The uncertainty of the situation with Voldemort didn't help either. But now he's with his family and has something to take his mind off things.

Please let us know what you like and don't about our story. The only way we can improve our writing is if you tell us what you like.


	8. Chapter 8

Just after breakfast the next day, they left Kero behind and Sirius apparated them to Godrics Hollow. They appeared on the outskirts of a quaint little village. Sirius took them down a small dirt track.

"It was just before Christmas the year after you were born, when Dumbledore told us the prophesy. Well, he told James and Lily and the Longbottoms, but James told us."

"Why would he tell Neville's parents?"

"Because Neville also fit the conditions of the prophesy. It said, 'Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.' It could have been either of you. We didn't know which, not until Voldemort attacked. Neville was born just a day before you, you know."

"No, I didn't."

"They could have gone to the Castle but decided that would have been obvious. Lily had been doing some research into different wards and things for the Order and she found the Fidelis Charm. That's when they decided to move here," he indicated the old house before them, tucked away in the trees. "I was the Secret Keeper until the end of September. But then I was attacked while on a mission. That was when I started to suspect Remus because I had only told him, James and Peter." He snorted. "Fool that I was, I never even thought it might be Peter. So I suggested we switch. It would have been a great prank. The Death Eaters putting so much effort in to catching me only to get nothing. Peter held out for only a month."

Harry said nothing as he listened to the story of his parents final months. The house a poignant reminder of the tragedy that had occurred. It was a small cottage made of red bricks. The front door had been blown off and lay resting in two pieces on the floor inside. All the glass from the upper floor was gone.

"When I got here that night, it looked like this. I was keyed into the alarm wards, same as Dumbledore, but Hagrid got here first. I wanted to take you but he insisted. He's not a person you want to argue with. I let him take my bike that night because I thought I could track it, find out where you were. I never expected to get thrown into Azkaban without a trial."

Both men stood in silence, thinking about the lives and the deaths of good friends and beloved parents.

"Would you like to see inside?" Sirius asked, forcibly shaking off his melancholy.

"Is it safe to go in?" Harry asked eyeing the building with distrust.

"Sure, this place was built by wizards. It'll stand as long as there are members of the Potter blood." Sirius let the way inside. The house hadn't stood the test of time well. With the door open and the windows blown out it was open to the elements and all of natures creatures. There was evidence of rats. The carpet was rotting away under the windows and the wallpaper was peeling.

"Okay," Sirius said, looking around. "I know it looks like a dump now, but it wasn't always like this."

"What did they do? What did my parents do?"

"James and I trained to be aurors, but they decided to go into hiding before he could finish his training." Sirius paused, eyes seeing a room fifteen years in the past. "There were pictures on these walls. Photos of us, the school. James had this big family photo from just after he graduated hanging over the fire place. His parents even asked me to sit in with them. Said I was a part of the family too." He blinked, clearing away tears that gathered in his eyes. "James's and Lily's wedding photos were hanging over there. We had all your baby pictures lines up along the mantle. James went a little nuts with the camera when you where born. Probably a good thing they were destroyed. You don't want those showing up at your coming of age party."

Harry looked around the room, trying to picture it as Sirius described. "It was supposed to be only temporary so they didn't do a lot of redecorating but it felt like home. Every time I came over I could hear you laugh. You laughed a lot back then."

"I wish I could remember." Harry whispered.

"I wish you could too." Sirius looked so sad.

Harry wandered out of the room, giving Sirius some time alone to remember. He looked around the rest of the house.

Most of it was as bad as the first room. Someone had obviously cleared things out. The study was empty of books, it's shelves hanging precariously to the walls and scattered over the floors. The kitchen had been left, perishables either removed or eaten. Sirius found him at the base of the stairs debating whether or not to go up.

"Their bedroom, mine and Remus's, and your nursery are up there. Remus told me he salvaged what he could. He has most of it stored away at his place. I'll get him to bring it over some time."

Harry nodded. "Can I... I'd like... Can we visit their graves? I don't know where they are buried. Aunt Petunia never said."

Sirius shook his head. "Every time you mention your relatives I find myself hating them more and more. James and Lily are buried not too far from here. I visited them before I came to see you before your third year. We can go now if you want."

* * *

The graveyard was located behind a small church in the middle of town. Sirius transformed into Padfoot and trotted alongside Harry as they walked through the streets. It being the middle of the day, there were people out and about. No one really seemed too interested in Harry as they bustled around, doing their shopping, running errands and generally just living, but Harry kept his head down and his scar covered just in case.

The village was a strange one. It was clearly a muggle town, with cars parked along the street, and a cell phone shop over by the florists. Wizarding presence was strong though, and Harry could see an apothecary down the lane.

Padfoot led the way to the church and used his nose to push open the small gate that led to the back. Harry followed, into the graveyard and up the rows to a single headstone, made from solid white marble. There was a simple inscription.

_Here lie treasured friends, beloved parents and true heroes._

_James Augustus Potter_

_and_

_Lily Evans Potter._

_You are missed._

Harry stared down at his parents final resting place. He didn't really know how he should be feeling right now. He had never thought of his parents as being buried. He knew they would have been, of course, but when he thought about them this was not what came to mind.

"Remus told me the Ministry arranged a state funeral a few days after they... you know... died." Sirius changed back, keeping his head down, he knelt before the headstone and pulled a weed out from around it. "He couldn't go because it was a full moon the night before, but he was told by friends that it was a farce. Minister Bagnold made this huge fuss about how great they were and everyone was really sorry they were dead and all, but no one was there to celebrate their life. James would have hated it. He would have pranked the lot of the poncy sods."

Tears now ran down Sirius's cheeks unchecked. Harry didn't know what he should do. He debated with himself before tentatively putting an arm around Sirius's shoulder. Sirius leaned into the touch. "When James's parents died, we through this huge party. There was loads of drinking and laughter. Everyone was telling stories about what they were like. I swear, I learnt more about Mum and Da Potter in that one afternoon then in the whole time I knew them. That's how they should have been remembered."

Sirius pulled another weed out of the grave site. He reached out and patted the head stone. "That's how you should have been remembered, Jamie. Surrounded by family and friends. I'd have told everyone about the time McGonagall found you and Lily in the cupboard. Remus could have told about the time the four of us..." He cut off. "The _three_ of us-"

Harry listened as Sirius talked to the headstone. It was fascinating to listen to Sirius reminisce, but it bothered him. It was like Sirius wasn't with him any more, he was so focused on the stone sitting on his parents final resting place.

"Sirius." Harry interrupted. Sirius looked up, the far away look still in his eyes. "They're not there, Sirius."

"Harry, what..."

"They're not there. What's in the ground, it's not them. They're gone Sirius."

"I know that, Harry. It's just..."

"You miss them."

"Yeah. They were my family. My true family. More than my own ever were."

"Like you're mine."

Sirius looked up at Harry and gave him a sad little smile. "Yeah, like us. Sorry to say it seems like you got a pretty poor deal out of this."

Harry shock his head. "I don't think so."

They both looked up as they heard a noise come from the direction of the church. Sirius quickly changed back to Padfoot just as a priest walked out of the back door of the church. They were far enough away that the old man took a few minutes to notice them.

Padfoot stepped in front of Harry. "Easy there boy. Easy." Padfoot must have known the man though because his tail started to wag.

"Hello, sir."

"Oh, hello young man. What brings you to the Hollow?"

"I... er." He looked from the old priest down to the headstone.

"Ah. Visiting relatives then?"

"Yeah, my parents."

The priest looked down at the gravestone and did a double take. "The Potters? Why you must be Harry then. I was wondering when you would make the trip."

"Well I..."

"It's alright, young man, I understand. It's not exactly a thrilling holiday destination. I am surprised though, that you came alone."

"Well I'm staying with friends this summer, and they're just letting me have some er... privacy."

"I understand. I am Father Timms. I have been the father here for over thirty years. A muggle actually but you can't live in a place like Godric's Hollow and not pick up a few things. I've known about the Wizarding world for some time. I'll leave you to it then, shall I?"

"Oh, no that's okay. I was done anyway." Harry looked down at Padfoot, who gave a sad sort of wuff of agreement.

"Well then young wizard. If it's not too much trouble, might I request your assistance? I have had some trouble reported to me, that I believe might be magical in nature. I was going to ask Mr Johnson, down the way but since you're here..."

"Sure." Harry nodded. "I guess I can help."

"Excellent."

* * *

Father Timms led them to a small stand of trees that separated the graveyard from a small playground. Some of the newer graves were in this area.

"I have been having some reports of ghosts in the area. I thought it was strange because ghosts don't usually like visiting graveyards, I'm told. Being a muggle I can't see ghosts, I was hoping you might talking with who ever it is and find out what he's doing here."

Harry scanned the area for any sign of a ghost. Padfoot was looking too, trotting through the trees. Harry was taking a few steps into the trees when he felt something that was becoming disturbingly familiar. He pulled out of his the Clow key.

"Er, Father Timms, can you give us a few minutes, please? I need to er… talk to the ghost alone."

"Oh," Father Timms blinked. "Well, certainly, I'll come back later then." The father turned back to the church. "Do come and see me before you leave, Mr Potter, I'd love to talk to you further."

"Sure, when I'm done here, I'll come."

As soon as the priest was out of sight Harry began the incantation. "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release." Padfoot changed back.

"You think there's a card here?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I can feel it. I don't know which one though."

"So, how do we find him?"

"I suggest start looking over there." He pointed toward the trees where a ball was floating about three feet above the ground.

"Yep, that'd be a good place."

Harry pointed the sealing wand. "Accio ball."

As the ball pulled away from where it was floating a small hot air balloon shimmered into view. It was a large colourful striped ball, like a beach ball Harry had seen Dudley take to the beach, with a smaller basket with a pair of wings hanging beneath it.

"It doesn't seem to be very dangerous. What do you think this one is?"

"I don't know. I have the Fly, maybe the Float, do you think?"

"Looks like it. Well, at least this one should be easy enough to capture."

The Float must have taken offence to Sirius's statement because as they watched, the balloon moved toward them and hovered above Sirius.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" He asked rhetorically, watching the floating avatar wearily. As if in answer, the basket under the balloon faded away and the strings holding it shot out and grabbed Sirius.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled. The Float pulled him up, seemingly weightless. Sirius struggled but the string were intangible, he couldn't touch any part of it. "Get me down!"

"Accio Sirius!"

This time, the card seemed to be fighting him as he tried to pull Sirius away. He put more power in to the spell, and had to dodge quickly, as Sirius came flying toward him. Not wasting any time, Harry raised the wand again. "Return to your power confined. Float Card."

Caught in the power of the Clow circle, the Float avatar seemed to deflate as it was pulled into card form. Harry snagged the card out of the air and spun to face Sirius. His godfather scowled up at him from the ground.

"Why do these things always go after me?"

* * *

When Harry and Padfoot returned to the church Father Timms was sitting in his office. Padfoot sprawled out on Harry's feet.

"So young Harry, did our resident ghost give you any trouble?"

Harry had been thinking what to tell the man while they walked back from capturing it. "No, no. Everything was fine. It was just a minor poltergeist. Easy compared to the one we have at school. I just convinced him he would have more fun somewhere else."

"Well done, Mr Potter. Very well done. I must say, that is a very unusual pet you have there." Timms said, peering over his desk at Padfoot. "I've never seen a breed quite like it. It does rather remind me, somewhat, of the description of a grim. They are supposed to haunt graveyards, you know. A portent of death some say."

"This is Padfoot. You don't need to worry, he's perfectly safe."

"Oh I wasn't worried. I've lived in this church twenty nine years and I've never seen a grim. I always thought it was a shame. It would be ironic if he was, though."

"Why's that?"

"Well, the Boy-Who-Lived with an omen of death for a pet? A little off beat don't you think?"

"People would probably run away screaming." Harry looked thoughtful. "Come to think of it, that might come in handy sometime."

Timms chuckled. "I'm sure. Your father would have thought it was a great prank. He was like that you know. Always with a joke to tell and never minding to make one at his own expense."

"Did you know them well?" Harry asked, always eager for information on his parents.

"I knew your father from when he was a boy. The family sometimes spent some time here during the summer. A troublemaker to the core, your grandparents had such a time running herd on him, but so likeable. No one could stay mad at him for long." Harry smiled, liking the image of his father as a young boy.

"I did not get to know Lily as well as I would have liked. They were not here every long before they died and only rarely came into the village. I only spoke to Lily just after her parents had died. She had had a terrible fight with her sister, over what, I couldn't say, and was very upset. You were too. I sat with her for a while and we talked. I don't remember now what we talked about, it wasn't anything important. What impressed me most about your mother was her quiet strength. Even when she was tried and grieving you could see it. She and your father were a very good match."

* * *

Harry was quiet as he and Padfoot made their way back to his parent house. As soon as they were out of sight Padfoot switched back to Sirius. "Timms is right you know. Your parents were a good match. McGonagall once called them the irresistible force meeting the immoveable object. I always wondered which one was which. They were both strong stubborn people."

"People don't tell me much about… about Mum. I hear about Dad but not so much about Mum."

Sirius blinked and looked sad. "No, I guess you don't. We didn't get to know Lily too well until the middle of sixth year. Until then she was just a girl James worshiped from afar. We knew she was smart, beautiful, muggleborn and had a muggle sister, which is actually very unusual. Usually when one sibling is a magical they all are. During Christmas that year James was still pining over her so I dared him to go see her, at home. Apparently he was a big hit with her parents. He would never tell me what he said but after that she didn't avoid us as much as she used too."

"Who did she usually hang out with? Who was she friends with?"

"Well, she didn't have too many friends. Mostly she hung around with Selene Spring. She was a Ravenclaw in our year. They were smart and they were girls. We usually avoided them when James wasn't pining. Last I heard, Selene was dating some reporter. I was busy with auror training and didn't get a chance to catch up with people much after graduation."

They entered the house. Harry looked around, trying to imagine his parents here, in this house. It was hard. Although he knew they had lived here, even had some faint memory of them here, the Castle in Wales felt more like home.

"What happened to all their stuff? Books and clothes and things?"

"I don't know. I think Moony came by and picked some things up. We should probably ask him."

Harry began wandering around the rooms. There were little things he wondered about. Were the plates in the sink from his parents last meal? Was that vase a family heirloom? How did they spent their time here? Wandering upstairs he began to see signs of the destruction of that Halloween night. Sirius followed behind him. Most of the destruction was centred around the east end of the house where the nursery was. Harry ignored that end, not wanting to see the sight of his mothers murder. He never knew where his father fell.

The other doors in the hall were open save the one right next door to the nursery. He moved toward the door and turned the handle. The door jiggled a bit but didn't open.

"It's locked."

Sirius frowned. "That's strange. It shouldn't be." He pulled his wand and flicked it at the door. "Alohamora."

Harry tried the door again but as his hand got near the handle, it was thrown back from the door.

"What…" He moved his hand back to the door. There was a strange magic covering the door. Harry summoned the sealing wand.

"Oh god, don't tell me there's another one of those things." Sirius complained. "Where is this thing?"

"I don't know. I can feel it all over the door." He moved his hand over the door. As long as he kept his hand away from the door nothing happened. When his hand moved closer to the handle, the magic solidified. A green and gold lock appeared over the handle. Silver wings straddled the front mounted drum.

"The Lock card. It has to be." Harry said.

"Great. Capture it already."

"Return to your power confined. Lock card." The power of the Clow circle spun out and attempted to draw the Lock in but couldn't get a hold of it.

"Now what?"

"We have to unlock it."

"What?"

"In order to capture the cards I have to beat them, right? I have to unlock it."

"I don't know about you, Harry, but my lock-picking skills are a little rusty."

Harry smirked at his godfather over his shoulder. "And you call yourself an escaped convict."

"Hey I did one better. I didn't open the door, I went through it. They never could figure out how I got out."

"Fred and George taught me how to pick locks while I stayed with them before second year. Hold on a second."

Harry used the sealing wand to transfigure some of the wooden debris into a set of lock picks. He pushed the longest needle into the lock and was feeling around with the other when the picks began to glow red hot. "Yeouch!" Harry dropped the picks and stuck his slightly singed fingers in his mouth.

"Well that didn't work." Sirius commented, unhelpfully. Harry glared at him. "What? Maybe we have to find a key of some sort. Locks have keys, right?"

Harry blinked at his godfather and slapped himself on the forehead. Clutching the sealing wand in his hand, he held it out and said, "release!" The wand shrunk down on itself and returned to it's key form. He held it up.

"Think this'll work?"

"Worth a shot."

There was no reaction from the magic of the Clow card as Harry pushed the key into it's barrel. "Here goes nothing." The lock sprang open as he turned and the magic on the door dissipated. Pulling the key from the now open lock, Harry summoned his wand. "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release. Return to your power confined. Lock card."

This time when the Clow circle's magic spun out, it latched onto the Lock avatar pulled it inward. The card settled into Harry's hand with a faint click.

* * *

I don't know how to feel about this chapter. On one hand I was quite please about how the emotional parts turned out. And the capture scenes weren't bad either. Neither parts are really things I'm good at. What I wasn't sure about was the switching between the two. It seems disjointed. But what can I do? Capturing the cards is the point, but I wanted to show some of Harry and Sirius's past as well.

What do you think about Father Timms? He was another part I was iffy about. He has no other role to play, he was entirely the product of the image in my head of an old graveyard and a priest. I know nothing about how the clergy works so forgive me for any mistakes. No offence was intended.

I also need suggestions. How do I get rid of Sirius? I love the guy and he is a main character but I don't want him there all the time. The trouble is, he really has nothing else to do, except look after Harry. Once Harry get's back to Hogwarts it'll be fine but until then, what do I do with him?


End file.
